We are back with the Green Life Conservancy’s updates from the second quarter of 2025. We shall be glad to receive your thoughts, opinions, support, feed-forward and more in this regard.

Beginning the communication of the quarter with a heartfelt gratitude to all our contributors for making everything we do possible. Especially to all those of you who fuelled the Visual Storytelling project. Over four days, we immersed ourselves in creativity, fun, and learning. Our facilitators and participants mutually benefited from the workshop, with Sanket’s stream activities being a highlight. We discovered a new art form, natural painting, and learnt to structure stories and craft narratives that reflected the local landscape, culture, and more. Stay tuned for our next workshop in July, featuring an improved format and exciting outcomes! 

Special thanks to –

Ketki Garg, Bengaluru

Kruthi Rao, Bengaluru

Himanshu Gupta, Florida

Simran Raizada, Dublin

Rohan Sarkar, Dublin

Raunaq Shah, Kolkata

Vijay Bhaskar Murthy, Bengaluru

Nilesh Korgaokar, Nainital

Kruthi Subramanium, Bengaluru

Jaya and Atul Shah, Happy Children’s Library, Nainital

We invite you to support our mission, of delivering alternative learning experiences to the youth of Uttarakhand’s rural areas. 

Expansion of our community, mentors and support!!

We are immensely grateful for the fellowship support we have received from the Centre for Learning, (CFL) Secunderabad. It has been engaged in an ongoing enquiry into what is (quality) education. The fellowship is a way of supporting those disenchanted with the mainstream lifestyle and livelihoods to explore ways of living that fulfil one’s emotional and personal needs whilst also being in harmony and nurturing the living environment around us.

A Resourceful Offering

Video based Nature learning module

We design video content through ONDto disseminate knowledge/ awareness. We use them in various forms, and one such form is as a tool for facilitating Nature-based learning and Environmental education. We have curated an easy-to-follow process of a Video-based facilitating module for nature learning. Stay tuned for more such resources!

How to facilitate

Video based module – Communications in the Wild/ Nature

Updates from the quarter!!

What are we upto On Nature’s Duty?

We have officially entered the production cum exploration stage of our documentary project addressing the Human-Wildlife interaction/conflict pertinent across Uttarakhand. Our friend Sanket, a picture book cum performative artist, has collaborated with us on various expeditions we have undertaken as a part of the project.

We are simultaneously researching, attempting to raise funds and build a network. We seek leads and support in this regard.

Visual Storytelling Workshop at the Happy Children’s Library

In continuation, the students involved in the workshop at the Happy Children’s Library came with a lot of exposure to alternative forms of learning, which made it easier for us to facilitate the sessions. They constructed narratives (the part that links OND’s project on the human-wildlife interaction/conflict) besides highlighting our shortcomings and the need for improvements and changes in our facilitation methods. We shall carry forward this learning to our further workshops. We are highly thankful to the children who participated, Jaya and Atul for lending us the opportunity and space to execute it, and all those who helped us through

Check out our social media post about the workshop.

Bird Comics with the students from Primary Goverment School, Majhera, Nainital

Bird Comics is among the best-performing activities across groups and diverse geographies. The current turn was of Majhera’s government school. The activity, in general, brings images and imagination to life, and children thoroughly enjoy creating art. We used early bird flashcards even as reference images for the children to draw bird pictures. The part where they create stories from the art is an interesting combination of imagination, fantasy and reality. A few impressive titles of the comics created by this group of students- Pakshiyon ki daud (Bird Race), Sathbhai ka jhundh (group of Jungle Babblers)

Social Media Post

Nature Vidya Stall at Annual Day of Happy Children’s Library

The Nature Vidya stall, of bird models and an interactive activity, was a grand success during the Happy Children’s Library’s Annual Day. Green Life Conservancy regularly facilitates the Nature Vidya sessions for the library, and the students had to display their Nature-learning through the stall. We designed an easy-to-interact session for students and visitors through which the latter had to identify the commonly heard bird calls in the village. The stall was decorated using beautiful paper-ball bird models that the children had created with Sonal and Samarth. We are grateful for the volunteering offered by Anita and Rita to prepare the students for the stall.

We invite you to consider pledging your support in any kind and frequency. Become a regular donor!

Dear Community,

We, the team of Green Life Conservancy, are delighted to bring you the updates from the first quarter of 2025. First of all, we are grateful and would like to thank each of you for extending your support in any and every form possible. 

You will find sections varying in the newsletter, including offerings, announcements, happy news, challenges, and a funding appeal. Share it as relevant, and follow us on social media platforms for regular updates.

Launch of our Website

We launched the website of Green Life Conservancy Foundation in the first week of January, beginning a journey of documentation and visibility. It was a well-thought-out month-long process of designing and content creation, indulging multiple additions and updates. Now, we are set to regularly update our website describing our latest offerings, developments, establishments, challenges, communal support and more. 

A resourceful offering

Nature based Learning materials for the Learners and the Facilitators.

We have designed and documented modules and sessions to make learning fun and effortless. A few of the materials are generic and widely applicable, while a few are age-specific, season-specific, regional-specific and alike. Usually, we display these curations as creative commons on our website. Through such content creation and display, we aim to ensure the democratisation of knowledge/ information flow. Every learner, facilitator, educator, and parent should have access to the learning material. 

Feel free to go through the resources, use them as you like and keep an eye out for more such learning tools to come-

Delightful Announcements

Expansion of our Community

Green Life Conservancy is now a member of the Western Himalayan Vikalp Sangam, The Himalaya Collective. We credit this move to our friend Alex Jensen, a Research and Project coordinator with the Local Futures organisation, who recommended us to the group! We are delighted about this expansion in our community circle. A bit about the collective- 

The Western Himalayan Vikalp Sangam (WHVS) is a process connecting individuals and organisations focused on alternatives in the Western Himalayan regions of India in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir. Part of the broader Vikalp Sangam, it has been active since 2016

The Himalaya Collective, an open-source platform that shares stories, perspectives and resources, emerged out of deliberations of the Western Himalayan Vikalp Sangam in 2019.

Sparking an Interest in Urban Ecology

After Lucknow and Moradabad, Shruthi facilitated a Nature Exploration Camp conducted by the Pratham Foundation in Bangalore. The students here came from a semi-urban background since they lived in the periphery areas of the fast-paced Bangalore. They had exposure to urban opportunities and modernity, so if they lacked anything, it was the connection with whatever of their natural environment was left. Our facilitator took this opportunity to get the participants to observe the urban ecology they shared.

Check out the documentation of the camp and its Instagram post, show us some love

UPCOMING PROJECTS & WORKSHOPS

The team of On Nature’s Duty, in collaboration with a Performative Artist, Sanket Petkar, from Mumbai, is geared up with a new project addressing the Human-Wildlife interaction/ conflict pertinent across Uttarakhand. 

The concept of the documentary film is the brainchild of the filmmaker Paras. He plans to execute a new method of filming and storytelling to showcase an unbiased image of the perspectives of the various stakeholders of the subject.

Currently, the team is in the phase of research and fundraising attempts. We shall be grateful for any leads or support in this regard.

A Visual Storytelling Workshop.

As part of the OND’s project Sanket will be facilitating a visual storytelling workshop in June 2025 for the children associated with School of Nature’s regular programs. This workshop aims to explore the power of visual storytelling as a means of creative expression, communication, and social engagement. 

It will benefit the participants to gain a deeper understanding of storytelling through visual mediums. Hands-on experience in developing characters, storyboards, and sequential narratives. Exposure to collaborative and participatory storytelling methods which would help the participants to be inclusive towards their surroundings. Fostering the idea of coexistence among young minds.

We are two facilitators aiming to reach 40 children through 2 workshops during a span of 10 days. Happy Children’s Library has aided us by extending a contribution of the stationary materials required for the workshop. Feel free to reach out to learn the budget breakdown/ details, or if you would like to cover the individual components of it, we shall be truly grateful. Every penny of your contribution will allow us to extend this learning to one more child.