Siliguri, Jan. 30: More than 35 visually impaired children living in the rural areas of north Bengal will learn to identify birds by listening to their chirps and differentiate plants by touching them.

The children will learn these and more at a three-day camp to be organised by the Siliguri-based Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation (Hnaf) at Lataguri, close to Gorumara National Park, from February 5.

“Most of the children we have chosen are from economically backward families. They will attend the camp and know about nature and bio-diversity from wildlife experts and special resource persons from the Society for The Visually Handicapped in Calcutta. The participants will not be charged any fee,” Animesh Bose, the programme co-ordinator of Hnaf, said today.

“Once the children learned how to identify birds, animals and trees, they can teach the skills to other visually handicapped children in the locality,” he added.

Along with nature study, for the first time, Hnaf will introduce music and theatre classes at the camp. “Prominent artists, singers and musicians will hold sessions for the children,” Bose said.

Hnaf is also organising a bird watching camp starting tomorrow at Golaghat in Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary and a 30-odd team of ornithologists, foresters and bird lovers will attend the programme.

The three-day camp will be organised in association with the wildlife division-I of the state forest department.

Bose said the forest department would also send some of its employees to the camp so that they could become more familiar with birds.

Around 500 species of birds are sighted in north Bengal