By H H Mohrmen & Pasqualina Lamare
Nowadays young people, especially those living in urban areas are deprived of the opportunity to live in the bosom of Mother Nature. This has disconnected the youth from nature. In fact urban youth with the exception of those who enjoy trekking, do not have any outdoor experiences. Young people in towns and cities have very little or no connection whatsoever with nature. The other exceptions could also be those interested in outdoor sports and who engage in their respective games in the playgrounds. Otherwise the lives of most young ones revolve around their rooms as they remain indoors most of the time. Unfortunately, it looks as if this trend will grow in the post-covid-19 pandemic era when people will prefer to be indoors and work from home.
The blame also is on the school system which requires that teachers burden the young with too much homework/assignments with timelines within which to complete them. This compels them to stay indoors most of the time. In the competitive world that we are living in where young ones are initiated into the world of cut-throat competition, they are expected to be the best in whatever they do. The youths are expected to work hard to be the leaders of the pack or to be number one. As such young ones are expected to excel in their studies. In the system where one is expected to be second to none, children and youths are even deprived of the joy of being a youth in this world of rat-race. They are denied the joy of being a kid or a youth as they are pushed to work hard and to be the best. In the process the youth have little time for recreation and they have also lost touch with nature which would otherwise be a refuge and another teacher for them.
One attempt to bridge this gap is to find out ways and means to reconnect the youth to nature that is around them. Hence under the project ‘No one shall be left behind initiative’ funded by REC, New Delhi, the Society for Urban and Rural Empowerment Society (SURE) in collaboration with the Northeast Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS) embarked on this new venture to bring the youth close to nature. The project was designed to come up with the idea called Agro-biodiversity (ABD) walk. It is one of the components of the project, which was started in September 2018 which is implemented by SURE in 28 villages in West Jañtia Hills and East Jañtia Hills District, Meghalaya.
The ABD walk is not just ordinary trekking for the youth of the area, but it is a trek with a difference. Here young people learn while trekking in the local forests, led by an elder in the community. The objective of biodiversity walk is to spread awareness among children and youths on the importance of nature conservation and encourage them to preserve mother nature. SURE has conducted many biodiversity walks for students in different schools and in many cases even youths in the project area took part in these walks.
While conducting this activities elderly persons from the local community were identified as knowledge holders to help the youth identify different plants and animals. The service of these elders were sought to take the children to the forest so they can explain to the children about the different wild edibles, herbs and even wild mushrooms that are available in the nearby forests. The thought of engaging indigenous knowledge holders in the walk is a brilliant idea as it continues with the tradition of knowledge sharing from the older to the younger generation. In the process the knowledge holders pass on their knowledge of wild edibles, herbs, different plants and their uses to the young generations. In all these walks hundreds of wild edibles, plants and herbs have also been identified and documented for future use.
It is heartening to learn that the activity allows the students to keep their minds open even as it makes them understand and appreciate the richness of biodiversity in mother nature. In a way this learning in the forest as opposed to classroom learning which sometimes can be dull is a welcome change for the learners. During the walks, learners are able to not only see but to practically touch, smell and even taste some of the wild edible plants which they would not have even dared to try in the absence of an expert. The activity also helps the kids build and enhance local knowledge and understand its benefit from the knowledge holders.
Till date a total of 23 ABD walks were conducted in the villages which include Iooksi, Thangbuli, Mulum, Mukhap, Musiaw, Shkenpysit, Niriang, Mustem, Ksehrynchang, Samanong, Tyrchang, Chamcham, Ammutong, Pynthorlangtein, Nongrimbamthong, Mynso A, Mynso B, Amkhloo, Amsohmeheleng, Khonglah, Nongkhroh, Ammutong and Muphlang, Kids have expressed happiness to be part of the walk. In all, around 800 young people participated in the 23 ABD walks conducted in these different villages.
In each of these ABD walks not only did the knowledge holders of respective communities help young people to identify many wild edibles including plants and herbs used but in some cases local traditional herbal practitioners also helped identify plants which are used as medicines. But what is trekking without a happy ending? It is mandatory that at the end of the walk a cooking demonstration is also organised. Many of these walks are part of the Nutritional Campaign which involves cooking demonstration as this is also part of the activity. The wild edibles that have been collected from the forest during the entire trek are then cooked to be partaken by all those who participated in the walk.
The knowledge that young people gain is not only that they are able to identify the plants particularly the wild edibles available in the vicinity, but they also know how to cook these plants and more importantly know how it tastes. The learning from organizing this activity is the fact that it is one class which everybody enjoys as it not only ends on a happy note, but a walk in the forest is an experience of a lifetime for most of the kids. After organising more than 20 of such walks, it give us confidence to suggest that this kind of activity should be incorporated in the school system in Meghalaya.
Incorporating this model in the school curriculum of the state will definitely be a great learning experience for the youth. It will not only help them learn about biodiversity which occurs in their neighbourhoods, but more importantly it helps the young people gain indigenous knowledge which is gradually vanishing from the culture of the people. Young people also get the opportunity to gain indigenous knowledge which they would otherwise not have the opportunity to learn in the ordinary school system.
The only disadvantage that this activity faces is because the walks are arranged only once thereby denying the learners of comprehensive knowledge of all the different varieties of plants which occur in the neighbourhood. The reason is because different varieties of plants grow at the different seasons of the year, hence the young are not able to capture all the different plants available in the area just in one ABD walk. No doubt the youth who had the opportunity to participate in these walks have gained immense knowledge about the rich bio-diversity and the indigenous knowledge in the area that has been collected throughout the ages. The knowledge gain would have otherwise vanished away but for these walks.
(Pasqualina Lamare works as a Program Associate with SURE under the ‘No one shall be left behind initiative project’) Email [email protected]