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| Corbett Ki Kahaniya |
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| Teacher Beth Boven paints a face |
Wildlife Week
Celebratory as well as sobering, Woodstock School immersed itself in India's natural history over the week of 18th to 23rd August. An extension of its Indian Independence Day festivities, each year Woodstock chooses a theme around which to build a week of education and activities that highlight the beauty and culture of India. This year, as part of Woodstock's initiative to expand environmental education, the theme of Wildlife Week was selected. Woodstock invited students and teachers from schools around Mussoorie to join in as well.
Three prominent environmental activists were invited to join Woodstock students, staff and guests for the week to share their passion for wildlife through assemblies, class presentations and informal conversation. Dr. Raghunandan Singh Chundawat, Mr. Toby Sinclair and Ms. Tykee Malhotra presented videos such as "Tigers of the Emerald Forest," "Snow Leopard," "Trade in Endangered Species," and "Ganges" followed by discussions with the audience about the enormous pressure the wildlife in India is under. Students and staff came away from these presentations with a clear understanding that, if the issues surrounding loss of habitat, poaching and indifference are not addressed quickly, much of India's wildlife will disappear, the most critically endangered species being the Bengal Tiger.
On a more celebratory note, students were treated to a variety of wildlife-related activities such as face painting, identifying animal calls, identifying which tracks belong to which animals, and story-telling. The week ended with a special presentation about the life of Jim Corbett, Corbett Ki Kahaniya, dramatized by the children of Choti Haldwani. Jim Corbett lived in the early 20th century and was a hunter-turned-environmentalist. A national park, Corbett Park, preserves his legacy and the village of Choti Haldwani lies within several kilometres of the park, on land previously owned by the Corbett family. For some of these children, it was their first trip outside of their village. With warmth and gratitude, Woodstock gave the performers a rousing ovation.
Woodstock has a long taken advantage of its location in the first range of the Himalayas by exposing students to the local environment through education and recreation. Staff and students also take action through regular trash collection and pulling of invasive weeds. Woodstock views Wildlife Week as one more step in the on-going process of taking environmental education seriously, aware that the need for younger generations to understand and respond to global environmental issues is crucial to the survival of many species, including human-kind.
Toby Sinclair began his career as a naturalist with Tiger Tops in Nepal and has been living in India for over 25 years. He is actively involved with Tiger Link and Global Tiger Patrol. Over the years he has written or edited 20 books on the subcontinent and has researched and managed the filming numerous films about tigers of India. He has also worked on projects about elephants, leopards, wolves and geese.
Dr. Raghunandan Singh Chundawat studied botany at university but did his Ph.D. in wildlife science, pioneering the first study on snow leopard in India. After fourteen years of work on high altitude mammals, he is an acknowledged expert on the Himalayan and trans-Himalayan regions. He completed his Ph.D. in 1992 on the Ecology of snow leopard and its prey species in Trans-Himalayan region of Ladakh, India.
Ms. Tykee Malhotra is founder and managing trustee of the Jim Corbett Trust. The objective of the Jim Corbett Trust is to protect and preserve the forests, rivers, wild animals and the wild places that Jim Corbett mentions in his writings about Kumaon and to inspire a new generation of conservationists in India.