A workshop on “Master Planning for Zoo Education” was held at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, from 15-18 December, 2014. Hosted by WII, the workshop was coordinated by CEE - Ahmedabad and sponsored by the Central Zoo Authority. Zoo directors and education officers from zoological parks across the country attended the workshop, which was inaugurated by Dr. V. B. Mathur, Director, WII, in the presence of Mr. B. S. Bonal, Member Secretary, Central Zoo Authority (CZA).

Ms. Meena Nareshwar, Senior Programme Coordinator, Zoo Education and Interpretation, CEE, gave a detailed talk and discussed CEE's Master Education Plan for Zoos of India including profiling zoo visitors, understanding visitor motivations and development of a visitor survey questionnaire. She also gave a presentation on the Range of Effective Communication techniques in conservation education and interpretation, including the use of online media - Nandankanan Zoo as a case study, wherein CEE has designed and developed the Interpretation Centre, and also put up panels, models and interactives on the rich Biodiversity of Orissa.

On 16th December, Mr. S. Sivakumar, Park Manager, Sundarvan, gave a presentation on “Effective Communication techniques in conservation education and interpretation, including use of online media”. Sundarvan – A Nature Discovery Centre and Mini Zoo located in Ahmedabad was taken as a case study, and ‘Who Am I?’ - the environmental game for participants - was conducted.

Dr. Bitapi C. Sinha, Mr. P.C. Tyagi and Mr. B.C. Choudhury from WII and Mr. R. Marimuthu from the Zoo Outreach Organization, Coimbatore, also spoke on the occasion.

As part of the school component of the Ganges river dolphin conservation education programme Phase II, 3 cluster level teachers training workshops covering Bijnore (UP) and Bettiah and Begusarai in Bihar were held.

Each workshop aimed at orienting the teachers on the formation of dolphin clubs in their school, conducting curriculum focused classroom activities using dolphin educational package and organizing school level and community level awareness programmes. Each cluster developed their strategy for dolphin awareness activities.

CEE North, with the help of local partner NGOs and the education department, is working on 20 locations in Ganga Basin, covering 10 each in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

An enthusiastic participation of eco-club members from Rajasthan was witnessed at the National level Painting and Essay writing competition, organized jointly by CEE and the Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA). Facilitated by the CEE Jaipur Team - as the state resource agency of NGC – the event focused at bringing about an attitude of care and concern for the immediate surroundings and generate awareness for the environment among the young citizens. The colourul paintings by the students reflected their imagination and the innocent interpretations of the theme ‘Control wasteful expenditure: Leave oil and gas for the future’ and ‘Make oil and gas conservation a habit’.

The competition provided a platform to students for out-of-the-box thinking, to share, understand cause and effect and also think about sustainable practices to preserve and conserve our natural resources through colours. An essay writing competition on the theme ‘Role of social media in conservation of oil and gas -your take’ and ‘New ways of saving oil and gas in our daily life’ was also organized in both Hindi and English. The events witnessed participation from over two thousand students, from 14 eco-clubs of Rajasthan.

CEE Jaipur team organized an orientation programme for the students of Regional Institute of Education (RIE), Ajmer, on 13 – 14th December 2014. The workshop, which was organized as part of Prakriti Mela, included a session on environment education through activities which ensured that the participants developed understanding of how each element in the environment was interlinked. The session also helped in sensitizing the students about how our daily activities affected the environment and how the education process could aid to come up with ideas towards relieving the pressure on the environment.

The students were further asked to ponder on the issues that affected our environment and group these into 5 broad themes - Water management, Biodiversity, Waste Management, Energy, and Culture & Heritage. Participants were divided in these groups and were given an overnight time to come up with ideas for action projects, relevant to their themes, which could be carried out in the campus and displayed during the Prakriti Mela. The teams presented their ideas and activities through drawings on charts, and sought feedback from the other participants.

A state level NGC Master Trainers Training workshop was organized on 18-19 December, 2014 at the seminar room of the Directorate of Environment, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow. Jointly organized by the NGC State Nodal Agency Directorate of Environment and State Resource Agency CEE - North, the workshop focused at imparting training and orienting master trainers coming from various districts of Uttar Pradesh on the implementation of the NGC programme. Over 90 master trainers from 46 districts participated in the two-day workshop, which was inaugurated by Mr. V. N. Garg, Principal Secretary, Environment and Forests.

Mr. Garg spoke of how under the NGC programme we needed to go beyond merely forming eco clubs, and ensure that proper teaching and guidance is provided to the children so that they emerge as enlightened citizens of the world. Mr. Mani Prasad Misra, former Secretary, State Education Department, urged the trainers to make use of the opportunity and bring the change by working towards environment conservation.

Ms. Preeti R. Kanaujia gave a brief overview of the programme and also shared past experiences of NGC in UP. The CEE team also conducted a two-day training module where master trainers were given resource material and guidelines on how NGC would be taken forward at the district level.

30 students of class 8, including and led by the GCS Marine Committee, of Aditya Birla Public School - Kesrol, Bharuch, Gujarat, conducted a cleanliness drive in Bhadbhut village, which is their GCS Marine Project site. Students carried out an awareness drive and cleaned up an area of the village. They also donated 10 dustbins and placards to the Village Panchayat.

The students are carrying out an action project on conserving Bhadbhut’s famous Hilsa fish, an anadromous fish species that comes upstream to Narmada to spawn. The garbage management issue also plays a part in the pollution of the river water, which is speculated to affect the quality of the fish-catch.

With support from the Bareilly Forest Division, CEE - North organized a launch event for Children's Forest Programme (CFP) on 22nd December, 2014, at the auditorium in Bareilly College, Bareilly. The objective of the launch programme - which was attended by over 200 participants including school teachers, students, forest and education department officials and media representatives – was to introduce the CFP initiative to the key stakeholders of the project.

Mr. Sanjay Tiwari from CEE briefly introduced the programme, while the chief guest Mr. Alok Kumar, ADM City, spoke about the need to understand the interconnectedness in our habitat. He stated how flora had a direct connection with the availability of resources like water or the regulation of temperature, and appreciated the CFP initiative which encouraged children to plant and adopt trees. He also released a programme brochure developed in Hindi. Dr. Dharam Singh, DFO Bareilly, encouraged everyone to participate in the initiative.

Ms. Preeti R. Kanaujia, Regional Coordinator, CEE North, gave an overview of the CFP programme and shared CEE's experience with CFP in Lucknow district. Mr. Jitendra Patel from CEE informed that the Centre will be working with 50 schools, of which 30 schools had already been identified. Students who had been declared winners of the PCRA competition were given prizes for the painting and essay writing competition.

CEE in collaboration with Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) has conducted Painting and Essay writing competitions across the country. The objective of the events was to generate mass awareness among children about the importance of conserving fuel, especially petroleum products.

CEE is the NGC resource agency for 15 states and U.Ts including Assam, and as part of the broader initiative, CEE North East team facilitated 9 events in Assam from 23rd November to 16th December 2014. Over 1200 participants from 44 National Green Corps (NGC) schools in 8 districts participated in the events - drawing and writing the message of fuel conservation.

The students tried their hand to artistically depict the themes ‘Control wasteful expenditure: Leave oil and gas for the future’ and ‘Make oil and gas conservation a habit’, and wrote their ideas on the theme ‘Role of social media in conservation of oil and gas-your take’ and ‘New ways of saving oil and gas in our daily life’.