(Top) a hedgehog and (above) a cobra. Two species of animals on Instinct’s rescue list. (Reuters)

 

For the past couple of years, it has been their enduring effort to save wildlife from serial destruction. Instinct, a group of around 20 school and college students, is fighting hard to save animals. Awareness programmes, rescue operations, street shows and quizzes are some of their means of communication. They have often been rewarded, but abuse and curse are something they have become used to while working in the field.

Recently, Instinct rescued a hedgehog from Kasba Rathtala. An animal resembling a porcupine, the hedgehog has been declared an endangered species by the forest department. ?When we rescued the hedgehog, it could fit into a fist. But generally an adult hedgehog is around one or one-and-half ft in size. It was suffering from malnutrition,? said Parikshit Ghosh, one of the members.

A hedgehog is found in areas like Rajasthan, but rarely in West Bengal. On July 2, they handed it over to forest department officials in a deer park, in Salt Lake. ?It has probably been sent to Midnapore zoo, where a male hedgehog would mate with the female,? said Suvrajyoti Chatterjee, another member of Instinct.

Earlier, the team had rescued a vine snake from the same area, when they faced public rage. ?Three or four months ago, they handed over a cobra to us. We informed the police, upon which the one person was arrested,? said Rathin Banerjee, deputy conservator of forest, wildlife. ?It?s good to see such a young group come forward. We have assured them every help if the want to work sincerely,? he added.

Instinct meets once a month, when all members have to be present. ?It?s like a class. Every member teaches the others in a particular area in which he or she has specialised knowledge. We also invite an outsider who has complained to us about something, and discuss the matter with them,? said Hoimoboti Chowdhury. The group was invited during the inauguration of the Nature Club of Mahavidyalaya Sammilani College. ?We shared with them our experiences,? she added.

Instinct is in the process of being registered as an NGO. The group has visited various places, including the Sunderbans, for educational tours. In the process, they learn ways to handle and preserve wildlife. Dipak Mitra of Calcutta snake park is the patron of these crusaders.

?Mostly illiterate people kill animals. They sell the skin. A few raids and rescue operations will not suffice to stop this. An alternative source of earning must be developed first. They should be prepared for non-consumptive use of wildlife. For this, they need training and backup. But all this can?t be done by the government alone.We have already given alternatives to some people in the Sunderbans. Earlier, they used to poach tigers, but now they work as guides with the tourism department,? summed up Banerjee.

 

A Movement Against Child Sexual Abuse

Action plan

On July 15, the youth group Elaan celebrated its first birthday at Caffeine, Elgin Road, with Contrapante, the first in a series of interactive coffee shop theatre shows, guaranteed to ?entertain, educate and provoke? .

Conceptualised by board member Joie Chatterjee with inputs from Anwesha Paul and Pranaadhika Sinha, and enacted by Joie and Vivek Mukherjee, the impromptu dialogues and questions to the audience raised queries, debugged myths and brought to light issues related to child sexual abuse and incest, such as lack of communication with parents, blind faith in relatives and the inability to speak comfortably about sensitive problems. The informal interactive session Speakeasy followed, the third instalment of the event.

Elaan started in 2004 with three members, and the past year has been a learning experience. The group has faced its share of bouquets and brickbats from different quarters, but it has expanded and emerged with several programmes to help understand and deal with the issue. The latest is a one-on-one tele-counselling project.

With a number of film screenings, signature campaign petitions, coffee table discussions, theatre, and a strong support group in place, Elaan refuses to give up, despite some backlash. High on the priority list now are team-building exercises, an awareness workshop on child sexual abuse and incest and collaborations with groups working on similar issues.

Screenings of The Children We Sacrifice, an awareness film on South Asian women?s experiences with incest, are scheduled, as is Child Sexual Abuse and Incest in the City, a workshop based on six years of research on child sexual abuse in Calcutta. Another Speakeasy session is also on the cards. The group intends to reach out to the rural sector soon, starting in end-September. Elaan members are encouraged by the way media and the general public seem to have woken up to the issue. The movie Page 3 did much to enlighten the masses on the issue, they feel.

Elaan also has plans to organise cultural events at regular intervals to bring in more young people within the fold. A poetry reading session for youngsters in August is on the agenda, followed by a rock concert where participating school bands need to compose and perform original songs with child sexual abuse and related topics as the focus. Members Trina Dasgupta and Vivek Mukherjee, who have approached over 40 city schools with the proposal, are enthusiastic about the responses, although they were taken aback by some institutes that insisted on ?a lot of mileage?.

On the legal front, LACSA, Elaan?s campaign to gain public support for the need for legislation against child sexual abuse, is gaining momentum. The signature petition sheet, put up at Caffeine?s Elgin Road outlet, has already sparked off an unexpected amount of response. The lack of a law against child sexual abuse is one of the main reasons why people do not report instances of abuse, and ensuring that perpetrators are dealt with and justice is served is a step towards reducing the occurrence of abuse.

The group is working on logistics, while the board juggles workshop dates and meetings with potential sponsors. Counselling and responding to emails, customising workshops and designing logos, Elaan has its hands full, and 2005 promises more action. ?We?re making good progress and the message is getting across loud and clear. We?re in the system, we?re changing the system and it?s a great feeling,? adds Pranaadhika.

Mandy M.,
Class XII, CIS

The Diary

Saif Ali Khan plays the guitar with the youth band Kids Kaos at the first Pogo Amazing Kids Awards ceremony in Mumbai last year

Rising stars

Do you know a child who is an exceptional singer or has a brilliant academic record or dances well or takes home all the awards on sports day? Here is a chance to get him or her recognised. The Pogo Amazing Kids Awards 2005 for children between four and 14 has been announced by the children?s channel.

?We launched the series in 2004... While the search was carried out by our own agencies last year, this time we are inviting nominations from principals, parents and the children themselves,? says Vivek Krishnani, director, marketing, Cartoon Network and Pogo.

The categories are art, dance, music, brains, sports, entertainment, innovative performance, bravery and entrepreneurship. ?A child need not run a full-fledged business to qualify for the last category. He may, for instance, have autographs or stamps which he barters to increase his stock or he may have built up a collection of video games from which he rents out. A self-starter is who we are looking for,? Krishnani clarifies. Once the nominations come in, panels of eminent personalities in each field will choose the winner.

Another category is for a future Bollywood star. ?Since this is restricted to those who serve the film industry as child artistes, the nominations are coming from Bollywood producers and directors.? There is another segment ? Pogo Voice Awards. Kids can vote for their favourite icons from various fields from the following categories ? most amazing hero, heroine, film, newcomer, film song, singer, comedian, sports hero, toon and toon show. The entry form is available at Bata or Reliance Web World outlets, and the Pogo website. ?We are also reaching out to 3,000 schools in a nation-wide programme.? The deadline for nominations is August 16. Voting for The Pogo Voice Awards starts on September 15

Chit Chat

It was a moment of mirth during the mock UN session at the annual fest of Don Bosco Park Circus, presented by TTIS. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Youngsters share the stage with adults in a mime show on the violation of women’s rights, entitled Revolt of Women. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Verses lost & found

lIt was more than just words and verses, it was about emotions and feelings. On July 25, Oxford Bookstore, in association with Kalam: Margins Write, presented Lost and Found, the second reading of poems as part of the three-month Fringe Poetry Festival of Verse. Aimed at inspiring marginalised sections of youth to discover themselves as cultural thinkers and writers, the session touched a chord. Young poets Reshma, Rina, Gopal, Shiuli, Chandra and Nargis charmed the audience with their honest, free-flowing verses in Bangla and Hindi, adding a fresh new dimension to youth poetry in the city. These poets wrote about their own experiences, infusing them with striking images. Like the ?sky-blue scarf? mingled with a little girl?s first initiations into religious texts, or a lonely star telling a story of wistfulness, pain and hope, or how The Almirah could represent a storehouse of childhood memories. Symbols were used to evoke powerful emotions of longing, bereavement and love.?(the?) folds of my sari / Are like the hesitant droplets on a kachu-leaf?? a friend?s touch seeming like ?someone is dropping water / On dry leaves by mistake?. There were potent expression of pain in the poems, a sister?s death or a broken childhood. But there was hope, too, with desires to be ?bright like the moon? / And brighten the whole city?. The evening concluded with a song in Hindi written and composed by the young poets, expanding on the theme of Lost and Found. For those who couldn?t make it to Oxford, the poems can be read on www.oxfordbookstore.com.

Inam Hussain Mullick
2nd year English, JU

Catch a reading of Raktakarabi as an alternative theatre production by Parnab Mukherjee, music by youth bands Jack Rabbit and Insomnia and screening of film clips on July 29, 6 pm, at Crossword, on Elgin Road.