A jungle in the classroom

Updated on: Friday, June 10, 2011

There was a violent storm in Delhi one night. Trees were uprooted and nests were blown off their perch. When the rain stopped, little Payal and her father went looking for injured birds and animals. It was then that Payal met Chirpy the sparrow, who followed her around for three months before she took off when she was fit enough to fly. Chirpy was just one of the many creatures Payal rescued in her childhood.

Today Payal B. Molur is a wildlife educator. She says, teach a kid that birds and animals are friends and should be cared for, and he or she will remember that for life. And, that is exactly what she is doing. She introduces children to the wildlife around them; educates them on the creatures they share the world with. “Everything is taught play-way,” she says.

Workshops for children

Payal, a resident of Coimbatore, conducts wildlife workshops for teachers and children aged between seven and 13. Called ‘Go Wild', the workshops are all about teaching wildlife in a fun way. At one such workshop in the city, Payal beautifully converted a classroom into a jungle — children hop-skipped like rabbits and roared like tigers! She taught them animal behaviour and movement patterns through games and team activities. There were tiger masks and Kangaroo races; running and catching between a heard of deer and hungry tigers.

Payal began working with wildlife-related issues at a young age. She was with Meditech, a media organisation that made an environmental serial for Doordarshan and spent three years working with wildlife filmmaker and conservationist, Mike Pandey. But, it was Sally Walker of Zoo Outreach Organisation, an NGO, who inspired her to take up wildlife education.

“She is my guru,” says Payal. “I once wrote to her, expressing my eagerness to work with her.” It was 2003, and Wildlife Conservation Society, a New York-based NGO was conducting ‘Teachers for tigers,' a five-day training programme for trainers. Sally invited Payal to participate. “The training was mind-blowing. It opened my eyes to zoo education,” says Payal.

Zoo education is not just about taking visitors around the zoo. “It's augmenting what we see with Science through activities and games,” says Payal. “For example, to explain how tigers use their tails for balance, we can place a pole on the ground and ask participants to walk over it. You can then compare the way we spread out our hands for balance, with the way a tiger holds its tail,” she explains. In the course of the programme she participated in, Payal was exposed to zoo education at The Bronx Zoo, New York. That opened new vistas for the 35-year-old. “I'd never seen anything like it in India. I learned how a zoo can be used as a living classroom. I realised that there were no practical methods of teaching wildlife in India. There were also very few local books for such undertakings.”

Reluctant to start

Back in India, Payal along with a friend put together 16 modules for wildlife education. “There were games, quizzes, activities such as visits to the zoo, etc.” They approached schools, with a proposal to train students and teachers. “A lot of schools closed the door on us initially, only a few took us in.” In 2007, Payal got the opportunity to do what she always wanted through a friend who was doing a documentary on North-East India. “I was asked to do an outreach education programme in the area.” Thus was born, ‘Under the canopy, a window to wildlife education to North East India.' It was published by Dusty Foot Productions, New Delhi and supported by Ecosystems Grants Programme, Netherlands.

The manual is a glimpse into Nagaland, its people, the flora and fauna. With lessons such as ‘Treasures of the rainforest', ‘Animals and culture', and ‘Explore your state', it speaks of the rich eco-diversity of the region and its present condition as a result of hunting and deforestation. But, unlike a regular textbook, the manual is full of games, ‘Kazi Naga' folk tales with illustrations by a local child, drama scripts and group activities. There are also animal masks to be photocopied!

For the research, Payal spent 45 days in Chizami, a village in Nagaland with a population of 3,000. She interacted with the locals and village heads. “Thanks to North East Network, an NGO, the villagers opened up to us,” she says.

It was here that Payal spoke to hunters firsthand and understood how their minds work. “When we look at a bird, we admire its colours and the way it glides in the sky. But in Nagaland, a father would point it out to a child and say how good it would taste,” she says.

She found that age-old practices, such as sticking a bird's cut-off wing on the cheek as a sign of pride was still prevelant.

“We wanted to convert thoughts of hunting into that of curiosity and provide hunters with alternative career options,” she says. Twenty-nine trainers, including youth leaders and Sunday school teachers were trained using the manual. Payal hopes to take the Chizami model to other parts of the country. “It's heartening to see parents and children showing a lot of interest,” she says. “We hope that they cast off their catapults and pick up cameras instead.”

A jungle in the classroom

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