A Q&A session was facilitated by Paras, who provided the required translations as needed.

Ben and the students introduced their bioregions, culture, and lifestyle to one another. They continued with writing letters to each other as a lovely gesture of bidding goodbye!

Our Goals for the session:

• Establish that language is not a barrier to communication.
• Eradicate white supremacy by offering an equal opportunity to interact and learn.
• Encourage the students to interact in the areas beyond their comfort zones.
• Showcase alternative career choices and pursuits, especially in connection with the land and environment.
• Offer Ben an experiential introduction to the Himalayan villages, culture, and lifestyles. Similarly, introduce the students to the part of their visitors’ world.

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!

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.

We planned and designed the activities in the workshop to introduce the life that thrives even in the concrete hubs of the cities. They included Nature Bingo, Nature art in the form of Nest building, and video screenings of birds and insects in nest building actions. Students read an Illustrated storybook highlighting Urban Ecology. We explored the most commonly found trees, insects, butterflies, etc, in the surroundings, followed by a comic creation based on Urban Ecology.

The nest-building activity revealed the young architects present in these children. It was impressive how these students were considerate about aesthetics, size, comfort and cushioning. It was a splendour to observe the students wondering about the size and species of the birds that would build or fit in such nests, the size of the eggs, and the cushioning required to keep them safe and warm.

The video screening session was a challenge, with no projector being present. However, the chosen videos gave a glimpse into the houses of birds and insects and the purpose they mainly serve. The facilitator took this opportunity to introduce the concept of natural building. 

We divided ourselves into groups and read an Illustrated Kannada book, There’s Nothing There, jointly published and supported by the Bengaluru Sustainability Forum, Nature Classrooms and Sutta Mutta project.  The book was chosen as a part of the workshop as it rightly introduces the small elements of nature that we, as urbanites, conveniently choose to overlook. We used it to encourage the students to observe their environment and its inhabitants on their way home that day.

During the Nature Walk on the second day of the camp, the subtle indications of alertness in observing the surroundings directed to the impact the previous reading had made. The nature walk also made it obvious that introducing easy-to-handle tools such as magnifying glasses and binoculars scales up the enthusiasm level in children. The curiosity with which the students watched the Lion ant through magnifying glasses was more precious than any major discovery!

Despite the challenge of leading a large group, which generally causes a disturbance to the normal functioning of the natural environment, we spotted, observed, identified and learnt about a few trees, insects, birds, and butterflies. The nature exploration walk on the premises bordering the Bannerghatta National Park was truly energizing. 

The final activity of creating an Urban Ecology Comic surfaced the authentic and individual observations of the children. Using the Illustrated book as a reference material helped the students to bring their imaginations to life. The activity displayed how uninformed the children were about their everyday surrounding environment. The students hardly drew any birds or insects besides the ones they saw in the book or during their walk. 

The positive side of the activity was that it ensured that each child participated, presented and reflected. Art exposes the excitement, dedication and sheer indulgence in young people. Challenges occur when they have to work in groups to create stories. The stories and art display diversity in the thinking and creativity process, giving a glimpse into an individual’s inner self!