Soaking up the warm summer sun, listening to birds chirrup, observing the textures of tree barks – simple acts kept nature educator K Vimal Raj and a bunch of kids busy on a recent Tuesday morning near Madhurawada. They carried journals, pencils and coloured pencils as they ventured into the community garden and street lined with trees. According to Vimal, who works as a teacher in a Waldorf-inspired school, Nature journaling helps in bringing about empathy in children.
“Nature journaling is a way for the inner child to feel at home. The belongingness that a home brings is something that we are increasingly denying our children. In the pursuit of identifying and intellectually gaining knowledge of the world around us through screens and the internet, we fall short on the most important part of it all - to foster a meaningful emotional connection,” says Vimal.
A group of artists and Nature educators in Visakhapatnam have been actively participating in an initiative to observe International Nature Journaling Week, which is between June 1 and 7. The event, which originated in Australia, celebrates nature and brings together the worldwide community of journalers.
