The children of the villages on the fringes of Panna Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh are now getting to study in smart classes in schools, where they are being imparted knowledge on a host of relevant subjects that include awareness about the need to conserve the environment. And this has been made possible by the forest department of Panna Tiger Reserve who has taken a unique step of providing good education facilities in the remote villages in and around Panna. To help the children understand lessons better, teachers now make use of digital screens where images are shown and explained in detail.
The Deputy Director of Panna Tiger Reserve, Mr. Vejayanantham TR, took Indian Masterminds through the stages of this smart class project and explained its objectives.
PROTECTING BUFFER ZONES
A tiger reserve consists of two areas, core and buffer. In the core area, there is no habitation and people are generally restricted from entering it. Only some percentage of core area are open for tourism. However, a buffer is just like any other forest where people can easily enter and even cattle can move around and feed. Mr. Vejayanantham said, “We try to protect these areas more compared to other forest areas in order for wildlife to have a buffer region between the core area and habitation. Without people’s support, it is very difficult for us to protect the wildlife in the buffer area as there is no restriction for the people and cattle to move around.”
There are cases where cattle get attacked by wild animals in the buffer zone and sometimes there are attacks on humans as well. The agriculture land, too, gets destroyed by wildlife at times. “During such times, the villagers living around the Panna Tiger Reserve try their level best to not harm the wildlife and they directly call us and ask for compensation. Despite being illiterate, they are sensitive enough to protect the wildlife in the buffer area,” the officer said.
INVOLVEMENT OF SAMITIS
In every forest division in India, there are Joint Forest Management Committees, which the forest department of Panna Tiger Reserve calls Eco-development Samitis. There are around 151 such samitis in this tiger reserve. Through these samitis, the forest department reaches out to people and provide benefits. Mr. Vejayanantham said, “There is a provision in the Joint Forest Management Committee that whatever revenue is generated through the help of eco-development samitis, we have to give one-third of the amount to these samitis so that they can carry on development work in their area.”
Last year, around 30 Samiti got their share from the safari money. Forest guards are also part of these samitis and they handhold Samiti members in prudent utilisation of these funds. Normally, this fund is utilized for road repair, painting of community halls, etc.
Mr. Vejayanantham said, “During the Covid period, the students living in villages in the buffer area, which is remote and has no connectivity at all, suffered a lot as they could not get proper education. Therefore, this year we thought of investing the money that is given to the samitis on smart education.”
SMART CLASSES FOR CHILDREN
The forest department started conducting sessions by visiting each samiti and making them understand the initiative of spreading awareness among children through smart classes. The team, which included Mr. Vejayanantham, Field Director Uttam Kumar Singh and others, put in a lot of efforts to convince them and were successful. Within a month, the team put in place 17 smart classes in 17 government schools.
Mr. Vejayanantham said, “The response was overwhelming. And the way children are reacting and learning things quickly, the main objective of this initiative is being fulfilled.”
This is only the start as the forest department of Panna Tiger Reserve aims to reach out to all the 151 samitis and, with their cooperation, make the underprivileged children of the area digitally educated.
