"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe". That was the take of one of the most universe-defining naturalists and environmental philosophers, John Muir.
Yuvan Aves and company are naturalists of the same breed. For years now, the work of these naturalists has encompassed every stakeholder and their needs. It has valued education and advocacy with equal measure.
It has thrived on the knowledge resources and lived experiences of local communities. In the process it has become a framework for others like them to follow. But how do you take the fruit of this labour beyond these limited confines?
How do you offer these solutions to a larger audience? Yuvan and team answered these by founding the Palluyir Trust for Nature Education and Research.
The origin story
With this trust, the team aims to create diverse nature-education resources, curricula and interfaces; work with children and the public across ages and social backgrounds. It is a means of giving themselves a legal and financial foundation for work they have already been doing, begins Yuvan.
"Our work in this started with Madras Naturalists Society's coastal biodiversity mapping project and its team. But, we needed a place to take our work forward. I also wanted to support my team members financially and help them do more in-depth studies. For that, I needed a financial structure. So, we founded this Trust in December," he narrates.
And so, young, enthusiastic naturalists - Aswathi Asokan, Rohit Srinivasan, Nanditha Ram, Sara Mohan, Bianca, Nikkitha Terasa, Charlotte Trishika Jeffries and Balakrishnan Ram - formed the core team.
All of them met Yuvan through MNS' shore walks or the coastal biodiversity project or Chennai Climate Action Group’s (CCAG) works. Barely three months into the creation of the Trust, even as they are still collecting funds for their efforts, the team is busy setting up four projects.
These too rely on the expertise of the local community. "One is the coastal curriculum for children of fisherfolk (a one-year apprenticeship programme of children of Urur Olcott Kuppam). For them to discover that their beach is a rich, living-learning space, unlike any other classroom. We’ve been able to show that five months into the curriculum. We are working with Pudiyador inside Urur Kuppam," explains Yuvan.
Projects and passion
The second project is the creation of Seashells - An Activity Book for the Beach and Ocean. It will serve as a coastal handbook for schools, which will host a bunch of activities and lesson plans, curricularly aligned and developmentally sensitive to different age groups and learning styles.
For this, the team is working alongside MNS. For the advocacy and conservation work for Ennore-Pulicat wetlands, they are relying on the foundation of the CCAG. "We are a part of these organisations. But the idea is to have a collaborative spirit and partner with different people who are doing the same work," she says.
The fourth project is the creation of a biodiversity-based card game that offers insight and information into local flora and fauna through a fun, interactive mechanism.
When Charlotte chose to do a BSc in Zoology for her undergrad, she hardly imagined she would be working on a card game even before her graduation. Yet, one internship with MNS and she seems to have found her way to this slice of novelty.
"There’s this game called Phylo that already exists but that is more complex than what we are going for. And it is not based on Indian biodiversity. We got our inspiration from there. It was supposed to be a flash-card kind of thing, more like a 'Who Am I?' riddle but it evolved further once we saw the different nature-based card games out there. So we created our own. From this, I would like people to learn about their local habitat through this. For any material you take has a lot to do with biodiversity from the West," she shares.
Dream a little dream
Charlotte has her own dream for the Trust - to successfully create a nature curriculum based on Indian diversity and have it be used in local schools and colleges. The handbook, of which Nikkitha is one of the authors, is the first step in that direction.
"If you look at it from a macro level, the ultimate purpose is conservation, right? That's what we are trying to do here. First, we have to learn about it - the biodiversity in our locality - and document it and share it with others. That's the dream," she points out.
For Yuvan, the dream is to be able to support naturalists too. "What I've found in my experience is that if you want to protect the place, protect the people who are passionate about protecting the place. Right now, all the work I do is something related to nature education, and ecology-related writing, and I am able to sustain myself. Yet, it has been such a hard journey with so much societal taboo. So, I want to support people who are passionate about nature. I want to tell these people: If you want to engage in this field, there is a community for it, it can be supported. Right now, we can afford only small stipends but it is something," he notes.
And this dream is already coming true, even within the confines of the core team. Charlotte took to Zoology because of the Biotech element in it. Now, she sees that animal behaviour and wildlife conservation in itself can be a career path - information not available to her when she was on the cusp of college. She hopes to help people see nature conversation as a rewarding career path.
Nikkitha, a fellow Zoology student, found a means to convince family and friends - who could only associate the subject with breeding and herding - about the course of her career. It also allowed her to tie her college education to the world she inhabited, and find practical knowledge. She hopes to be able to pass this on.
Core team
Aswathi Asokan, Rohit Srinivasan, Nanditha Ram, Sara Mohan, Bianca, Nikkitha Terasa, Charlotte Trishika Jeffries, Balakrishnan Ram & Yuvan Aves
(For more details, and to donate to the cause, visit Instagram : a_naturalists_column)