News & Events

Talk on Conservation of Wildlife in the Central Indian Landscape

Last week children of Classes 3 – 8 had an online session with the famous wildlife photographer and creator of the first virtual wildlife safari – Mr Suyash Keshari. This presentation covered many aspects of his journey in Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh. He showed us many pictures of the reserve and the animals in their natural form, all taken by him. He explained how tigers are endangered and emphasised that we need to save them. I was particularly moved by the story of how his tiger friend Solo was poached. He told us that in the past, Solo had fought a male tiger to save her cubs. He showed us a picture of Solo with her chest ripped open after her fight. He also taught us how to identify tigers and how to know if a tiger is young or old. One can look for the colour of their nose – pink nose means the tiger is young, black nose means the tiger is old. Thereafter, he gave us a fun fact that all white tigers are descendants of ‘Mohan’ the pet white tiger of the ‘King of Rewa’ which was captured by the king when the king was hunting.

Mr Keshari also informed us that if we ever get stuck in the forest with no water, we should look for trees with a cut in their bark in the shape of a mouth known as ‘Crocodile mouth trees’ from which sweet freshwater gushes out when you give a slit in the opening. He also told us how the animals such as monkeys, chitals and deer look out for each other by making a warning cry when a predator is near. Mr Keshari insisted that we all must stop going to zoos and instead go on wildlife safaris as it is inhuman to keep wild animals in small cages. It was an eye-opening interactive session that made us realise that we need to care about animals even more as each of them plays an important role in the ecosystem.

By Namyaa Munjal – 5C