Panaji: School children are in for a visual biodiversity treat as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) India has created the first biodiversity and cultural features map of the state. This is crucial at a time when conservationists are also working on a wildlife map.From catfish to tiger, and Kaavi art to the folk dance of ghoddemodni, this easy to interpret and child-friendly map is set to be released on Saturday by Stephen Alter at the Goa Art and Literature Festival. The map will be distributed free of cost to be used as an educational tool to schools across Goa, in print or in digital form.
This WWF map features 48 commonly found species in Goa covering birds, mammals, reptiles, sea animals, mangroves and insects. Aditya Kakodkar, Goa state coordinator, WWF India-Goa, said that the idea is for children to help them link the creatures found on the map with real ones spotted in their regular settings.
Kakodkar said the concept of the map emerged from WWF’s work with schools. “After NEP was introduced, we began training around 450 teachers in govt and govt aided schools in Goa starting from Class VI this year. As NEP implementation progresses, we will be training teachers of other classes. Under NEP, children are introduced to various vocations and we are training teachers in environmental aspects related to vocations,” said Kakodkar.“We did not want to present some species found in an interior region which has been discovered by a researcher, but those which will be rarely available for observation by a child,” Kakodkar added.Blending Goa’s biodiversity with its cultural aspects, the map will represent Kaavi art, dressing of kunbi women, the practice of crocodile worship carried out as manngetapnni, he added.He added, “Usually, one-off events are held in schools where children are shown a bird through a scope. It becomes more a source of entertainment rather than learning. Here, the map put up on the school wall will start a conversation among children on biodiversity as they will discuss what they have spotted in their daily life. The style of the art works have also deliberately been kept in folk indica to interest students while not being cartoonish in nature. It has been created by a famous artist Sudarshan Shaw.”
