Agasthyamalai Community Conservation Centre (ACCC)

The camp site for ATREE’s WilD KidZ ‘wild camp 2019’ was Mundanthurai, a part of Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR), Tamil Nadu, India’s first Tiger Sanctuary declared in 1962. As a part of Agasthyamalai Community Conservation Centre’s (ACCC) Conservation Education Program, a 3 days and 2 nights wild camp was organized for the students of Grade 7 students from Pushpalata Vidya Mandir, Tirunelveli from August 29 to 31, 2019. The main objective of the camp is to connect the campers with nature and to expose them to various phenomenon in the wilderness. The 20 campers (10 boys and 10 girls) along with 3 staff got this opportunity to explore the nature through presentations, activities, games and stories.  In the first day of the camp, the campers were introduced to the wild camp, Forest types of KMTR, Butterflying and Tree Tracking through powerpoint presentations, which helped them to get a  clear overview of the camp and the camp site. The second and ...

Thennan meiman gives trainng to draw elephant Presentation about butterflies Introduction about KMTR The ATREE’s Wild Kidz ‘Monsoon Camp’ was a three-day two-night residential camp, held at Mundanthurai, Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR), organized by the Agasthyamalai Community Conservation Centre (ACCC), Manimutharu in association with Tamil Nadu Forest Department. This wild camp exposed 13 boys, 6 girls and 4 teachers of Muthamil Public School, Muneerpallam, Tirunelveli to the marvels of nature through lectures on line-drawings, uniqueness of KMTR, the morphology of plants and identification of the butterflies of KMTR. The camp helped the Muthamilaites to develop their outdoor skills through multiple activities such as a forest Hike, Road-kill Survey, Butterfly walk, and night watch, in which they have sighted many animals including Nilgiri Langur ( Semnopithecus johnii ), South Eastern Langur ( Semnopithecus priam ), Bonnet Macaque ( Macaca radiata ), ...

A group of 25 students of the various age group from Youth of Kodaganallur Endeavour (YOKE) Society, Kodaganallur participated in the Green ‘Walk-Stop-Talk’, a half-day hike organized by ATREE’s ACCC, Manimutharu at Mundanthurai on May 31, 2019, in collaboration with Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. ATREE researchers guided the hike in the dry deciduous forest and explained the children about several biological phenomena especially mimicry, camouflage, pollination, parasitism, poop ‘a microhabitat’, self-defense mechanism, etc. through the sighted living things. They appreciated different life forms, whistling wind and indirect signs of animal movement in the sunny morning. Sighting of graceful Green-vine Snake ( Ahaetulla nasuta ), swarms of aestivating Millipedes ( Spinotarsus colosseus ) on trees, scrapes of Sloth Bear, Owlfly with large eyes, cluster of Harvestmen with long legs under a small culvert, tall woody climbers,...

The weekend of 10-12th May this year will forever be engraved in the minds of the 15 participants who attended the ATREE’s Wild Kidz ‘Summer Camp’ organized by the Agasthyamalai Community Conservation Centre (ACCC), Manimutharu. The three-day two-night sleepaway camp, held at Mundanthurai, Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR), was a wild camp for 11 to 15 age group from various government and private schools around Tirunelveli District. The objectives of the camp were to educate awareness about the environment, ecosystem services, to give them an opportunity to learn and develop skills like painting, leadership qualities, teamwork, and the specific goal is to instill conservation education among the campers in an enjoyable and meaningful way. All the camp activities were conducted by researchers of ATREE. The campers were exposed to pre and post camp evaluation in order to measure the outcomes of the camp. ‘I design my T-shirt’ a fabric painting session, where th...

ACCC, Manimutharu has organized Earth Day 2019 along with Tamil Nadu Forest Department, Tirunelveli Division and District Science Centre, Tirunelveli on April 21 and 22, 2019. Two programs were conducted, namely Wall Painting and Leaf Zoo for the school children in order to create awareness about the protection of Earth especially on the Earth Day 2019 theme ‘Protect Our Species’. 50 students led by Ganeshan. M, Founder Director, Sivaram Kalaikoodam, Tirunelveli belonging to various schools and college along with their family members participated in this program. The participants painted the lesser known species unique to Kalakad -Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, Tirunelveli on the walls of District Forest Office, Tirunelveli namely Jungle Guava, Malabar Tree Nymph, Red-Giant Snail, Flat-faced Seahorse, Chalazodes Bubble-nest Frog, Fan-throated Lizard, Green Sea Turtle, Flame-throated Bulbul, Nilgiri Marten and awareness painting on Big four Snakes, Snake Bite Prevention, Sna...

AS Article 51 A of the constitution of India says “It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forest, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures” the ATREE’s Family WilD Quest 1.O, an annual Wildlife Quiz Competition for students along with their parents was conducted on December 30, 2018, to make students explore, encourage and award the budding talent more aware of conservation and protection of the Indian wildlife and to focus their attention towards the importance of Kalakad-mundanthurai Tiger Reserve and Tamiraparani Landscapes. The programme was inaugurated by Mr. S. Nambiraj, Former Director, RSETI, Tirunelveli at the District Science Centre, Tirunelveli. This competition made students to look beyond their textual knowledge and established a relationship between wildlife and application of the learnt concepts in conservation. It consists of two stages such as Elimination Written R...

“Snakes are sometimes perceived as evil, but they are also perceived as medicine. If you look at an ambulance, there’s the two snakes on the side of the ambulance. The caduceus, or the staff of Hermes, there’s the two snakes going up it, which means that the venom can also be healing.” ~ Nicolas Cage The Snake Conservation and Snakebite Mitigation is a public awareness campaign initiated and headed by The Madras Crocodile Bank (MCBT) with CSR support from USV Pvt. Ltd., Infosys Foundation and Deshpande Foundation. Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) is associating with MCBT running this awareness campaign in Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi Districts. The awareness campaign employs the best techniques of the advertising industry to educate people on how to avoid snakes and highlight that antivenom is the only antidote to a venomous snakebite. The campaign educated around 5000 individuals including students, teaching and non-teaching staff of ...