Mahuadanr tribal students go on educational vacation with PTR in Jharkhand

The Mahuadanr Region of Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR) conducted an educational excursion for the students of the Tribal Residential High School in Mahuadnr. The educational excursion was part of the effort of the Department of State Forests, Environment and Climate Change to spread awareness among students about forests and their animals, which will contribute to the mitigation of human-animal conflict.

Keeper Brinda Pandey said today, "We hired two buses and took the entire contingent to Ormanjhi-based Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park to let students and teachers see what a zoo is about animals and how important they are to human life."

PTR South Division Deputy Director Kumar Ashish said, "We select such government schools which we feel need such exposure to animals." “These school children only learn or know from their families only negative things about animals, such as elephants destroying houses, looting crops and trampling people to death, or sloths attacking men and women, or wolves being dangerous. We want to show that animals have their own meaning for humans and there is a need to know more about them,” added Ashish.

When asked why the Mahuadnr area was chosen for this educational excursion, the deputy director of the southern division of the PTR replied: “There is a wolf reserve in Mahuadnr. A sloth bear goes down in the jungle. Elephants come here from the neighboring state of Chhatisgarh. The students of this place deserve to be exposed to the zoo, and that's what we did." The tiger reserve covered all round trip transportation costs for the educational excursion, Ashish informed. 

Brinda Pandey said they arranged breakfast and food for the entire school contingent.