A team of enthusiastic environmentalists has been reaching out to students on various issues connected to climate change in the Malnad region. In the last four months, under the banner of the Biodiversity, Environment and Agriculture Study Centre (BEAS), young environmentalist Nagaraj Koove and his friends have conducted 100 programmes, reaching over 8,000 students.
The organisation covered schools and colleges spread over nine taluks—Koppa, N.R. Pura, Mudigere, Chikkamagaluru, Sringeri, Thirthahalli, Belthangadi, and Karkala—in four districts: Chikkamagaluru, Shivamogga, Dakshina Kannada, and Udupi. The objective was to make the students understand the impact of climate change on the biodiversity of the western ghats and the agriculture practices.
“We, the organisers felt the need to spread the message about the impacts of climate change. The programme was designed such that the students get time to interact with resource persons rather than listening to lectures”, said Nagaraj Koove, a post-graduate in Mathematics, and one of the founders of BEAS. He is also the coordinator of the Climate Change and Youth Programme of the organisation. Other activists include Manu Jogilbyl, Gurumurthy Jogilbyl, Aathish Sringeri, Praveen Kalasa, Radhika, Pallavi, and Bhagya. They are all residents of the Malnad region, primarily engaged in agriculture activities.
Interaction
The two-and-a-half-hour programme would begin with a short video on climate change. It will be followed by a discussion. Again, another documentary on Karnataka’s biodiversity will be screened. The organisers would distribute pamphlets on the causes and impacts of climate change and ways to mitigate it. “We would make the students read the pamphlets and get ready for the quiz competition. As we had special prizes for the quiz winners, students would read the content and actively participate in the competition. This served the purpose of making our activity lively and useful”, he said.
The organisers feel that the interaction with the students was highly impressive. Many students, after attending the programme, volunteered to be part of the activities. “Around 250 students are in touch with us on a regular basis. We share information and opinions on the various aspects of climate change and biodiversity in the Western Ghats”, said Koove.
Crowd funding
Interestingly, the BEAS conducted the series of programmes through crowd funding. They invited donations for the programmes from people in the Malnad region through social media platforms. “People offered from ₹200 to ₹18,000 for our programme. We collected nearly ₹1.5 lakh. Within that amount, we procured the projector required to screen the documentaries”, he said.
The final programme, which would be the 101st, will be held at Horticulture College in Mudigere on September 22 (Friday).
