Media Release
Mangaluru, Jul 29: Indian Catholic Youth Movement (ICYM) of St Mother Teresa of Kolkata, Surathkal deanery organized 'Mild with Wild', a special full-day programme for youth to inculcate love for the nature on July 28 at Kanatavara Forest Base camp. There were three parts in the programme viz; training , planting drive and forest tour to identify the biodiversities in the nature.
Dinesh, RFO Moodbidri, gave an interactive session in the forest about the need of forest, how the nature is connected to human life, conservations of biodiversities, sustainable development, eating healthy food, breathing clean air and drinking clean water. He also explained about, how forest department functions and encouraged the youth to join forest department. During the interaction session, he answered certain questions regarding wild life Act, the violations of wild life act and punishments, the tips to get jobs in forest department, relevance and benefits of bamboo plantation and motivated the youth with his personal experiences with wild life.
The other resource persons, Jeeth Milan, Bhuvan, Harini and Fr Richard explained about the present state of forest in India, what is the percentage of green cover left for next generation, deforestation and its impact and how youth can collaborate with vana charitable trust and society for environment and climate change.
As the support towards the empowerment of villagers around Kanatavara, ICYM members joined hands along with the villagers in bamboo plantation drive and seed sowing to create Kantavara Bamboo village.
The youth were given a guided forest tour, following the instructions of the forest department, trekking and rock climbing adventures. Some youth identified some species of reptiles, plants and other creatures.
There were 58 youth, who journeyed with the nature. The villagers provided traditional food, cooked in a traditional way. The participants brought their own plates, cup and water bottles to avoid the waste.
The programme was organized by Fr Richrd D'Souza, deanery ICYM director, with cooperation of Fr Austin Peter Peres, the dean, all the parish priests of Surathkal deanery, Msgr Lesslie Shenoy, the donor, Arun, Puru from Kantavara, Jeeth Milan, secretary Vana trust, and ICYM Surathkal deanery youth council members.