A workshop in nature on nature
We learn from books as well as our surroundings and this is what children and adolescents from around the Harit Upvan Sorkha proved in a recent Grassroots Comics workshop held on the occasion of World Wildlife Day. Right from the beginning, the participants exhibited a commendable display of their learnings and observations at the Harit Upvan urban forest, and Sharad Sharma, from World Comics India, kept doodling them. The end result was a magnificent tree on a white board with its branches and roots laden with their ideas and reflections. Participants, who had witnessed the transition of Harit Upvan from a wasteland to an urban forest, were quick to tell the changes they had seen with their own eyes. Very soon, they took the discussion beyond the expectations and added many interesting dimensions to the topic like the role soil and insects play in maintaining biodiversity, human-animal conflict, peaceful coexistence, endangered species, disappearance of animals and birds sounds. The workshop concluded with participants creating their own comics for the first time on the themes of environment and wildlife. Both the participants and their parnets were excited to see their final comics at the end of day two.The final outcome will soon be exhibited at the Sorkha Harit Upwan.