Issac Kehimkar, Public Relations Officer- Bombay Natural History Society.

On Conversation Education Centre
The Government of Maharashtra has given BNHS 33 acres of natural forestland on lease bordering the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, next to Film City. With financial support from the UK Overseas Development Authority, the BNHS has developed a Conservation Education Centre with a Discovery Room, a Display Room for exhibits, an Auditorium and five Nature Trails for guided or unguided exploration of the forest. The Centre is not only a place to delight lakhs of children in Mumbai, but is also a catalyst for conservation education throughout India.

Apart from being a Centre for informal and pleasurable nature education for children from the 2400 schools in Mumbai, it plays a vital role in saving the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. The Park covers 104 sq. km of forests and is not only a vital green lung for the 12 million people of Mumbai, but the catchment for Mumbai's drinking water lakes and a home for 25 species of mammals (including leopards), 275 species of birds, 150 species of butterflies and many other wild but vanishing species.

The Centre aims to sensitize key groups like journalists, civil servants, business executives, legislators etc. It's mobile vans, fully equipped with audio-visual material, will reach out to populations in and around various parks and sanctuaries. The Centre brings about awareness, sensitivity and knowledge to save what remains of our precious but rapidly vanishing forests and wildlife. When funds permit, the Centre hopes to add dormitory facilities and tents for overnight camps and workshops.

We conduct outreach programme for people staying in and around the forest convincing them that it is their forest and they have to protect it for their own livelihood and future. We try to make them partners in conservation. This is a place where we conduct such programmes and also we have installed education centres at different places. We have installed one at National Park gate. Government of Delhi has also agreed to give us a place and they are installing with our help an education centre. We have started centres in Hydrabad and Pune as well. The aim is to bring them closer to nature, and once they start loving nature then they will want to protect.

How many people visit information centres ?
Annually we get about 20,000 visitors that include 15,000 children.

It's a regulated visit where one has to fix a day, take an appointment and they spend half or full day at the center.

Do you have follow up programmes with children visiting information centres ?
It depends on school how much they are interested in taking children out besides regular studies.

Many schools feel that their children cannot cope up with existing regular studies, so it is difficult to take out time and engage them in such activities often. But there are schools like Arya Vidya Mandir going out of the way to bring children to such places to develop their interest in nature conservation.

We have projects with Rotary, and other local clubs where they make students members of this society from 5th standard onwards so that they keep coming every year.

We also have programmes for under privileged, mentally challenged children .

Can you elaborate on programmes for underprivileged and mentally challenged ?
There are different programmes for them on knowing and feeling the environment and nature. For e.g.Visually impaired children can feel nature with different sounds where as deaf and dumb can feel it with sight.

Do you have communication strategies to reach masses ?
BNHS very regularly conducts PR exercises. We give press and audio/visual releases at regular intervals. We have established Hornbill clubs in several schools. Burhani foundation has given us some money to activate these school clubs.

We give them the initial start and then clubs have to be on their own. So this kind of movement is on. But being an NGO, we have to maintain respectable profile in media. We can't be like a commercial organisation trying to advertise products.

BNHS is a research organisation so it is carrying a very formal image and we have to maintain that respectable profile.

Hence we maintain a medium profile. Media has been very supportive to us. We don't over do with media, as we can't over expose to maintain a medium profile. BNHS always maintains subtle publicity .

What role do you expect government to play ? Has government been supportive ?
Government has helped us in various ways. They have provided us with the basic ingredient that is land. Apart of land for Conservation Education Centre, the government of India has given this building of BNHS Hornbill house, and they are charging only Rupee 1/- for this prime building right in the heart of the city and next to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Vastu Sangralaya ( formerly Prince of Wales Museum).

Generally lease is for 99 years, but in our case it is as long as BNHS exist. And BNHS exists from 120 years. That is the kind of government support we are receiving. It is good that there has been political will for such cause, and that is one of the reasons why BNHS has survived for so many years.

But we try to be financially independent by generating income through various sources. We generate our own income- being a research organisation we get consultancy work; we sell our publications across the world through Oxford University press.

We also raise money selling our products like greeting cards, calendars etc. We keep minimum dependence on government because we want to be free and independent of our voice.

So tomorrow if we want to take any stance or criticize government, we can do so. We have done that in past. As an NGO we have to remain without any strings attached .

What are your future plans ?
BNHS has to be a centre of excellence in research and biodiversity. We have to protect ever-shrinking forest and wild life. These forests and wild life are not for wild animals and birds, but they are for us.

Water security and many other things depend on good forest. If we have good forest then there will be good water body. Forests protect water bodies from seditation. Vihar and Tulsi Lake without Sanjay Gandhi National Park cannot exist, because first rain will bring in so much of mud that half of its carrying capacity will be exhausted.

And in few years it can be full of mud. Because there is a forest holding back the mud, such situation is avoided. That is how we have clean water in these lakes. We need to have forest in all these catchment areas, wherever there are dams and lakes

How do you deal with tribal community in the forest ?
In our special projects, we try to convince tribal that it is their own place and they need to protect it. We explain them the benefit of protection.

It is a community that is use to staying in forests, so in the name of rehabilitation we cannot just place them on a piece of land that they have never been acquainted with. It is our moral responsibility to take care of forest dwellers. If you want to rehabilitate them then there has to be a special programme.

Otherwise they were always a part of forest, let them be part of forest and see that they participate in protecting forest, as they are the best protectors .

Do you deal with problem of encroachment ?
We deal with encroachers legally. In Sanjay Gandhi National Park there were many encroachers, but we have taken them out.

Our judiciary is very good. NGOs like the BEAG were successful in banning quarrying at Sanjay Gandhi Park, which was a politically propelled project.

They were making lots of money selling stones and mud but they were eating away the park. This also e cleared many hawkers from there. At Andaman & Nicobar, Kalpavrishk and BNHS with the help of a local NGO stopped further environmental degradtion. We always take help of judiciary in solving such problems.

BNHS is a scientific organisation so we deal with any problem scientifically. We only recommend scientific results to government, people and all those who are going to implement it .

What role do you expect corporates to play ?
Fortunately we have been getting help from corporates like HSBC, Deutche Bank, DSP Merrill Lynch etc.

TATAs have given us more than half a crore. ICICI recently gave us 50 lakhs for sensitising corporates under Green Governance Programme. Through this programme, we sensitise corporates that are involved in big projects for not causing irreparable damage to environment.

Mr.Hemendra Kothari, Chairman of DSP Merrill Lynch has a soft corner for wild life and wants to do lot of work in this field .

Do you expect any non-financial role from them ?
Many children come to visit us every year so we require many volunteers to educate them. Last year we had volunteers training programme and this year we are planning to conduct one after monsoon.

These volunteers are professionals who want to devote their time to nature and its conservation.

Volunteers can help us in educating children, adults, designing display, software programmes, marketing calendars and greeting cards, campaigning etc. Lintas has come forward to help us with communications.

What are your Key achievements ?
Many.

There have been people who have devoted their lifetime to BNHS. We have B.G. Deshmukh, former cabinet secretary as a president of BNHS. People like B.G. Deshmukh lending name to BNHS shows that BNHS has something to be with. BNHS is 120 years old and we publish technical journal. In last November we published 100th volume of this journal, it has been an unbroken publication.

This journal gives entire information on biodiversity of India. BNHS has discovered certain species that are new to science. We have rediscovered birds, which were considered to be extinct. We have worked in different areas of wild life preserves; have lobbied with government to protect these sites.

Bharatpur is a world heritage site; it was protected on the recommendation of BNHS. A damn was to be constructed on Silent Valley. With the help of local NGOs from Kerala, BNHS saved silent valley. It is one of the most endangered habitat in the world. Animals and birds there are found nowhere in the world. BNHS has formed network of individual institutions throughout India.

These people have come together and we are trying to identify areas, which are important biologically. Then we make list of these areas and try to protect them through government recommendations. For 10 years we have worked on bird hazards to Aircrafts. We have given recommendation that will minimize bird hits. Once upon a time India was exporting frog legs to many countries. BNHS tried convincing government to ban this export, as frog is an important ingredient in rice fields.

When this export was in full swing, it was noticed that the rice fields were suffering from a pest called rice hoppers. Pesticides were failing against this pest. We asked government for time to prove that frogs are more important in rice field then in export market. Indian Council for Agricultural Research gave us three years time and money to prove the fact.

Day and night our scientists worked and proved to the government that frogs are important in rice field. They eat insects harming crops four times their body weight. Finally government realised its mistake and banned frog leg exports. It was a multi million-dollar business and many MNC's were involved in it.

It also then followed banning frog dissection in schools and colleges. Some lobby wants to bring it back but we are going to oppose it. Frog has more important job in rice field then on dissection table. Entire aim is to conserve India's biodiversity .

Is there any area where BNHS needs to improve ?
We lack in marketing of our existing products and in development of new products.

We require good support here so that we can generate good income to be financially independent.

Financial independence will secure our future.