[Reader-list] Tribals, fishermen take classes for school kids

[Kshmendra Kaul]

Dear Peter
 
Thanks for sharing this.
Excellent initiative.
 
Kshmendra

--- On Sun, 6/6/10, T Peter <peter.ksmtf at gmail.com> wrote:


From: T Peter <peter.ksmtf at gmail.com>
Subject: [Reader-list] Tribals, fishermen take classes for school kids
To: reader-list at sarai.net
Date: Sunday, June 6, 2010, 10:32 PM


Tribals, fishermen take classes for school kids

Express News ServiceFirst Published : 06 Jun 2010 12:50:23 PM ISTLast Updated :

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Environment Day celebrations took on a
different dimension on Saturday at the Science and Technology Museum
here, when the traditional knowledge holders such as farmers,
fishermen and tribals from various parts of the State explained to the
school students certain basic truths on how the hills, the rivers, the
clouds, the wind and the rains are connected with the sea and how and
why the various ecosystems need to be protected - the gospel of
biodiversity.


The technical sessions of the programme, inaugurated by Food Minister
C Divakaran, began with a `chattupattu’, a tribal prayer to invoke the
gods of the hills.

Curiosity was instantly sparked among the children as to the
accompanying traditional musical instrument, the kokkara.

The tribals let a few children see it up close and explained that
traditional medicinal practices were all half medicine and half
prayer.

Hundreds of city school students gained a lot of traditional knowledge
and their scientific interpretations, thanks to a unique programme,
`Let us talk biodiversity’ organised by the Centre for Innovation in
Science and Social Action (CISSA) on the occasion of the World
Environment Day.

Of the three sessions on biodiversity, the first one, `kattarivu’, was
on forest knowledge, where the kids got a wonderful exposure to the
world of forest-dwelling tribals, medicinal plants, wild animals,
pollution, dwarf elephants and even spiders from the interactions with
traditional medical practitioners Lakshmikutty from Mottamood, her son
Prasad and Chandrankani.

Rare experience

The children got to see the pictures of the very rare plants like
Amrithapala, which is supposed to have amazing curative powers,
according to the tribal lore.

They also saw slides of ‘valiya arayan’ or Aristolochia tagala,
‘cheriya arayan’ or Aristolochia indica and Palakan or Humboldita
anjengo, which Lakshmikutty said are widely used to treat snake-bites.

S Rajasekharan, a senior scientist from TBGRI, who co-ordinated the
event said that the research has found that Amrithapala has been found
to be effective for ulcers and cancer-like afflictions. He also said
that many diseases such as arthritis and cancer and lifestyle diseases
are unheard of in the tribal hamlets.

The scientific interpretations to the traditional knowledge made the
sessions very meaningful for the kids.

Sea-knowledge

The session on sea-knowledge `kadalarivu’ was not just limited to the
sea. Fishermen John J T, Joseph Lopez and M Ambrose talked to the
students about the coral reefs, coasts, variety and depletion of fish
stock, the waves, nature of the wind, nature of the clouds, rivers,
rains, hills and their intricate relationship with each other. “What
the fish in the sea feeds on, are the dead leaves and other organic
matter that essentially comes from the hills through the rivers and
the leaves of mangroves that abound the coast,’’ said Joseph.

Echoing what Joseph said on the interconnections between the various
elements of nature, co-ordinator

A Bijukumar, a scientist from the Aquatic Biology Department of the
University of Kerala, pointed out the possibility of a massive decline
in the fish population of the State, if and when a river dries up.

The fishermen also gave a detailed description about how clouds in the
western horizon with a white streak of cloud running across along with
a white sheen on the sea surface would surely mean rain and how the
high crest of waves in the south to north direction would mean a rough
sea.

The Nattarivu group was represented by Manoharan Nair, Peringavil
Sali, Gauri Kani, Malakhi Nadar, Divakara Panikar and Selva Raj and
this group was lead by C R Rajagopal, director, Nattarivu Padana
Kendram, Thrissur.
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