India

Drama about tiger poaching

In February, 2003, WCS educators led two week-long workshops for Indian schoolteachers and environmental educators. The workshops used the new WCS curriculum, Teachers for Tigers, as well as the Habitat Ecology Learning Program to provide participants with new materials, educational methods and content.  Although Teachers for Tigers has already been used by educators in Laos and Myanmar, these workshops provided the first opportunity for testing in a workshop setting with educators from tiger range states.  The February workshops were followed by three in June, 2003, two of which were held at Project Tiger reserves. Six alumnae of the February workshops served as Assistant Trainers in partnership with WCS staff.  Teachers for Tigers has been translated into Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada, the primary languages of south India, and also has been translated into Hindi. The response from participants to the workshops and materials was beyond enthusiasm.  Another series of workshops took place in North India in 2004 at the National Zoological Park, Van Vihar National Park, and Pench Tiger Reserve.  Five of the six Assistant Trainers have been selected as WCS/C.V. Starr Environmental Education Fellows and have attended two weeks of advanced training at the Bronx Zoo.

These workshops in India directly leverage Annette Berkovits’  position as the President of the International Zoo Educators Association.  Most of the coordination and all of the recruitment of participants was handled by Sally Walker, the IZE Regional Representative for Asia, who is based in south India.

India is a country with incredible biodiversity. As well as lions, elephants, and rhinos, it has the world’s largest surviving population of wild tigers. WCS has a long-standing commitment to tiger conservation, dating back to George Schaller’s work in India in the 1960s.  WCS biologist Dr. Ullas Karanth has conducted research on tiger ecology and conservation for more than 15 years.  Other WCS scientific projects in India have focussed on hornbills, non-timber forest product exploitation, and bird diversity in the Western Ghats.