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A PAPER FROM THE URBAN IMPERATIVE
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Kids for
Tigers
The Sanctuary
Asia Tiger Program: A globally replicable school contact program to win
support for wildlife and protected areas
BITTU
SAHGAL
The author is editor of Sanctuary Asia
magazine, published in Mumbai, India, and founder of Kids for Tigers.
Citation: This paper may be cited as:
[Authors.] 2005. [Article title.] In Ted Trzyna, ed., The Urban Imperative.
California Institute of Public Affairs, Sacramento,
California.
1.
INTRODUCTION
Sanctuary
Asia
and Sanctuary Asia Cub magazines are India's premier wildlife
publications. Established over two decades ago, they serve to inform and
weld the wildlife and nature conservation movement in India. The primary
rationale for launching both magazines was that without appreciation of
their natural heritage, it is unlikely that citizens of a nation will feel
concern at its loss.
We wish to share with
others our success and experience in turning urban children, and through
them their parents, into proactive defenders of protected areas.
We conceived Kids for Tigers in 1999, and launched it in 2001, to sow
conservation seeds in young minds. The idea was to move beyond tokenism
and make a serious dent in public opinion in favor of the tiger as a
symbol for all of nature and protecting the environment. This was in
keeping with the philosophy of the Government of India’s Project Tiger,
initiated in 1973 (Project Tiger, 2004).
We took the "Benefits beyond Boundaries" theme of preparations for the
Fifth World Congress to one million Indian children, their teachers and
parents. The prime benefit on which we focused was water. We encouraged
children to communicate with their counterparts in South Asia, so that an
informal network of young persons will emerge in Bangladesh, India,
Pakistan, the Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
Apart from the long-term investment in our future citizens, children help
us take nature conservation messages to the adults in their lives in real
time. What is more, their innocence belies very incisive minds and
enhances the credibility of messages that seek to convey to adults the
need to protect ecosystems in the long term, despite the fact that they
yield high profits in the short term.
2. FIRST STEPS: 1999-2001
In 1999, Sanctuary Asia contacted a major Indian business
corporation, Britannia, to support its mission to win young minds. To test
the concept, arrangements were made to visit over 700 schools in 12 cities
to show a film on tiger conservation to students between the ages of eight
and twelve. This was coupled with a major signature drive on special
scrolls that resulted in the collection of one million signatures in
support of the tiger. Our story was simple and direct and children
understood it easily:
"We cannot save the tiger unless we save its forests. If we save its
forests we wind up saving the subcontinent's most precious water sources.
And if we save our water sources, we save ourselves."
India's Limca Book of Records certified this compilation
of signatures as the world's largest “Save the Tiger” scroll. On November
14, 2000, India’s Children's Day, the Prime Minister wrote a letter of
congratulation to the children, stating that "the tiger is an indication
of the environmental health of India. Protecting India's tiger forests
will not only save this animal, it will also ensure the country's economic
stability."
This pilot project proved to be wildly successful and resulted in
Britannia holding a sales conference in February of 2001 at the
Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve, at which Sanctuary made a detailed
proposal for a school contact program titled Kids for Tigers. With help
from Project Tiger, the entire corporate team of some 90 executives was
taken into the tiger reserve and given the rationale for wildlife
protection. Within a week after the conference ended, Sanctuary was
given a green light to proceed (the fact that Britannia's flagship brand
was a biscuit, or cookie, called “Tiger” played a key role in convincing
the sponsor). We began putting together a team to execute the tiger
program in 650 schools, with an average student population of 1,500 each,
adding up to just under one million children.
At the very outset, it was agreed that there would be absolutely no
commercial activity surrounding the program. The only benefit the sponsor
gained was association with Kids for Tigers. We recognized, of course,
that without the wholehearted support of teachers, no school contact
program would be successful. Therefore, our first step was to work on
creating a supportive community of teachers through special teachers'
workshops held to explain our program and the rationale behind it, and to
present our belief that nature education and good values went hand in
hand. An educationist headed the Kids for Tigers team, not a
conservationist.
In very short order, special Tiger Notice Boards were put up, a Web site
was created, slide shows were presented, nature walks were organized, and
ten children per school (amounting to 6,500 kids throughout the country)
were selected to be "Tiger Representatives." After observing them on
nature walks and interacting with them after the slideshows, children with
exceptional potential were asked to participate in a Kids for Tigers
Nature Camp at the Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve. To carry the message wider
into the public arena .and provide children with a platform to display
their arts, crafts, skills, and purpose, Interschool Tiger Fests were held
in each of the cities where the Kids for Tiger program was being run.
Much larger "Tiger Melas"
(fairs) were held in Mumbai (Bombay) and Delhi. Wildlife NGOs, forest
departments and of, course, Project Tiger participated fully in these
events. Over a hundred thousand people took part in the Ranthambhore Tiger
Mela. A massive petition campaign was mounted with the object of having
children proactively go out into the community to win support for the
tiger. The children were able to get almost a million signatures. The
objective was to create a vast community of young Indians who shared a
common bond with nature.
3. NEXT STEPS: 2002-2003
In 2002,
Kids for Tigers began receiving widespread public support and
acknowledgment at the highest levels of government. India’s Prime Minister
met Kids for Tigers representatives at his residence in January 2002. The
Minister for Environment and Forests also met the children and launched
the Tiger Express, a mobile Kids for Tigers van that goes through cities
and towns. In addition to its core supporters among teachers, parents, and
students, the program was acknowledged by NGOs, wildlife experts, and
government officials involved with conservation.
After a meticulous review, a decision was taken to retain the basic thrust
of Kids for Tigers and strengthen and consolidate the gains made in the
previous year. Kids for Tigers was then taken to 700 schools in 12 cities,
with over a million children participating. The Kids for Tigers Web site
was expanded and turned into a resource not only for children, but for
journalists and conservationists. Recognizing that teachers were key to
the success of the program led us to find ways of making teachers'
workshops even more attractive and useful. By then, teachers were helping
to shape and plan the overall strategy and content of Kids for Tigers,
including an activity calendar synchronized with examinations, holidays,
and school events.
In May 2002, four “Tiger Ambassadors,” carefully selected by Project Tiger
from among its top student participants, visited Kruger National Park in
South Africa, an event reported by the media in both India and South
Africa.
Teachers suggested that
more nature camps be held, and consequently a decision was taken to shift
the budget from paying for one overseas trip for four students to using
the money to support regional Kids for Tigers camps for 120 children
within India: in the Bhadra, Tadoba, Sundarbans, and Corbett tiger
reserves, plus one national camp at the Ranthambhore Reserve for 12
especially promising kids.
As in the previous year, Save the Tiger slide shows were shown in many
schools, this time to 420,000 children in 700 schools. Notice boards were
put up in 675 schools, and students were appointed to keep them up to
date. In addition, Kids for Tigers inspired and helped several schools to
carry out their own environmental education projects, always encouraging
them to make direct contact with local NGOs and forest departments.
Interschool Tiger Fests and Tiger Melas (fairs) were held and these served
to take the Kids for Tigers message to adults, mainly parents, but also
other opinion-makers in each city. A new concept, Mini Tiger Melas, first
tried out in Chandrapur and Belgaum, proved to be very successful. The
Ranthambhore Mela once again proved to be popular, but lost some of its
original luster because local businessmen began to exploit the large
crowds. This led us to abandon plans for large melas; we chose instead to
run a yearlong school contact program for children in villages surrounding
tiger reserves.
4. THE FUTURE
By 2003, Kids for Tigers had won acceptability and respect from
schools, officialdom, and the general public. A community of teachers,
children, and supportive parents had been established. A dedicated team of
Kids for Tigers coordinators had been set up.
In late 2003, we had a midstream change of sponsorship, with Heinz Ltd.
partnering with Sanctuary
Asia
magazine to run Kids for
Tigers. To bring the rationale for saving wildlife into the mainstream, we
intend to lay the foundation for a thrust on health as a principal
byproduct of saving wilderness, since clean water and clean air are
principal byproducts of protected areas.
The overall strategy we have chosen is to consolidate the goodwill and
gains made over the past three years.
The access and credibility we have already established with schools will
help to institutionalize the program still further by encouraging schools
to incorporate Kids for Tigers camps, nature walks, and melas into their
regular annual school calendars.
Training workshops for the coordinators and volunteers who carry out the
program in schools will have positive impacts nationwide. These workshops
will be timed to take advantage of regional and national Kids for Tigers
camps, and general teacher-training workshops.
Despite demands from several other cities, including Jaipur, Pune, Lucknow,
and Bhopal, we intend to stay focused on the cities in which we already
have major activities, which include Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata
(Calcutta), and Bangalore. In light of the fact that even in our focal
cities many new schools are asking to be included in the program, we may
change the mix of schools to delete those unwilling to commit the time
required. We also intend to establish very special relationships with
30-40 deeply committed schools nationwide.
5. CONCLUSION
This paper seeks to share not only what we
did, but how we did it. Our Web sites (Kids for Tigers, 2004; Sanctuary
Asia, 2004) are updated weekly. We are willing to assist groups around the
world with ideas and advice on how to win the support of children in their
communities for wider environmental action.
As of early 2004, Kids for Tigers reaches 13 cities, 750
schools, 1,500 teachers and one million children in India. The “strike
strategy” employed by us is to stimulate interest in nature through slide
shows in schools, followed by nature walks, and then camps for the most
promising kids. Tiger fests in each city take the message to a wider
community. Notice boards and wall spaces in schools continue to be our
most effective communication tools.
We aim to create a veritable army of supporters for Project
Tiger. We focus on kids, but also work to influence their parents and
older relatives so the impact of the education imparted can begin to have
effect immediately.
6. REFERENCES
Kids for Tigers. 2004. Kids for Tigers.
http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/kidsfortigers.
Mumbai, India.
Project Tiger. 2004. Project Tiger.
http://www.projecttiger.nic.in.
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, New Delhi.
Sanctuary Asia. 2004. Sanctuary Asia.
http://www.sanctuaryasia.com.
Mumbai, India. |
