Connecting kids with nature

Bengaluru: Imagine sitting under a tree and sketching what we see as a way of learning about the ecology we live in. Ecology through Art, a weeklong workshop, facilitated by city-based wildlife researcher Abhisheka Krishnagopal in collaboration with Kavade, an NGO that works with preserving the traditional and cultural heritage of Bengaluru, aims to give urban children a chance to move away from their TV screens, iPads and textbooks and get a hands-on experience on learning about the environment.

“Children in cities have little access to information about their immediate surroundings. The focus is more on exotic wildlife or a place they cannot relate to in a far away land,” says Ms Krishnagopal, who has been studying the city’s changing ecology for about two decades. “Nature that exists just outside their doorstep is left unnoticed. We really want to change that,” she says.

The workshop will focus on trees, birds and animal homes. “It is to teach children to respect their surroundings and really connect with nature,” she says. In the seven days, the children will be introduced to different species of saplings, nests and even insects. “Insects are a very important part of our ecology just like plants and animals, but more often than not, they are swatted at first glance. Like honey bees, for example. If they’re so important in the food chain in producing the food we eat, but it is rarely acknowledged. We hope to educate them to co-exist with these beings,” she explains. She believes that the best way to do that would be through art as sketching requires a lot of attention to detail.

“It would give children an opportunity to watch them closely and be able to relate to them. Once you draw something live, it is rare to forget it,” says the researcher, who is trained in Fine Arts from  Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath. The children will be educated about waste management during the course of the workshop that begins on Monday, April 17 at Kavade Store in Seshadripuram.