yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

Livelihoods for Conservation: Some Questions This piece was published on The Citizen on 8 th March here. Thanks are due to The Citizen, Gayeti and Aishwarya. The initial session brought out the need for data collection from and patrolling in the landscape. As the participants ( stakeholders to sustainable action in the landscape ) opened up, significant proportion of the discussions focused on livelihoods. This was in course of a workshop organized to help put in place a long-term plan for wildlife conservation in the landscape ; a conservation priority area located in the seven sisters region. The workshop provided the much needed platform for stakeholders ( from diverse social, economical and professional backgrounds ) to not only put forth their views but also engage on the topic with others. As the deliberations began one was left wondering why all livelihood enhancing activities were taken to be of help to conservation; in other words as strengthening conserva...

This article finds place in Teacher Plus’ March 2017 issue here . It first appeared in Firstpost on October 18, 2016 here . Thanks are due to Teacher Plus and First Post. Reimagining Environment One of the plenary speakers at a recently held conference on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in Ahmedabad highlighted the need for Environment Education (EE) to be political. EE had been away from politics for long, and this she said had rendered it weak. Participants were quick to raise questions on the risks this could pose of complicating the issue further, especially given the ability of the facilitators to deliberate on such topics. The speaker’s response was unambiguous. On the one hand, students today have access to a lot of information – from the Internet and other sources. On the other, the onus lies on the facilitators to upgrade their skills and communicate issues responsibly. In other words, not talking about the topics is neither an opt...