Art Camp
Susan Sharma, Founder, IndianWildlifeClub.com
Art Camp and Photo Exhibition held on 12th January 2002 at New Delhi.
IndianWildlifeClub.com along with Mantram Art Foundation and Nehru Bal Samiti sponsored an Art camp for underprivileged children on the theme' Wildlife and Environment'.
The best paintings were awarded prizes and exhibited in the Russian Cultural Centre.
On the same day Parivartan Art Gallery held an exhibition of wildlife photographs. Four members of IWC namely, Jayant Deshpande, Saurav Ghosh, Rahul Dutta and Anantika Singh
exhibited their photographs.
The picture shows Rahul Dutta presenting his photographs to Ms Erma Manoncourt Dy. Director,( Prog.) UNICEF. Insets: the inauguration of photo gallery by the Chief Guests,
Ms Manoncourt and Shri. V. Viswanadhan ( Eminent Artist based in Paris).
The photograph by Jayant Deshpande 'The Peacock Flytrap' - an endangered plant from the Western Ghats, won a lot of appreciation and is also shown as an inset.
Incidentally, Jayant, who managed selling three of his photographs, contributed 30% of the sale proceeds to Indian Wildlife Club. Thank you Jayant!!
More news on the artcamp and pictures in the next issue.
A paper titled' Making the ICE (Information, Communication and Entertainment) age work for Conservation, was presented by Dr.Susan Sharma at the National Symposium on Elephant
Conservation, Management and Research, at Hardwar in December 2001. Full text of the paper can be read by clicking
here.
...............AND Views
(Saraswati Kavule, Member , IndianWildlifeClub.com)
“There is enough for everyone’s need but not for some people’s greed” – Mahatma Gandhi.
I had been questioned recently when I had proposed that we need to adopt simple lifestyles and may be avoid certain modern day comforts/luxuries in order to preserve the
environment. One of the young persons, who wanted to volunteer for the awareness campaign, asked me if I was asking him not to enjoy his life. I did not know what to say to that at that time. Truly, what constitute comforts for us today were rare luxuries
in the past. The question is where do we draw the line. If we must save nature for ourselves and for our children, then is it too much to ask to make these sacrifices? And actually are they sacrifices? What did we gain from all our luxury lifestyles? Air-conditioning
has made us more prone to respiratory problems like asthma (combined with the increase in vehicular pollution which again is a result of our comfortable lifestyles). People in urban areas, drive to the gym and expend much money and energy there. And yet, when
we look at the health standards of the urban versus rural where do we stand? All the processed foods and intake of chemical prescriptions have reduced our immunity to disease. Not to speak of carcinogens in all that convenience! An average urban Indian spends
most of his/her free time trying to preserve their fragile health- not to speak of the great amounts of medical bills. In this context, isn’t it is in our interest if we went back to our simple lifestyles? I wouldn’t say that one must do an about turn, but
when we can decide on man-made creature comforts based on our needs it would reduce a lot of the harmful toxins being generated in the manufacture, usage and recycling(if any) of these products and saves us the environment besides keeping us in good health.
Is that too much!