Ladybird Environmental Consulting is a social enterprise, so we do what we are suppose to do. We identify the environmental needs in the society and focus on those that need interventions. Identify the stakeholders, beneficiaries, NGO partners and finally a corporate partner who is willing to support. We bring all partners together and help them drive social change that benefits people as well as the environment.
In our endeavor, we interacted with various forest department's who now waking up to the concept of CSR funds. We share a list of requirements put forward by some of the forest departments. If you are corporate with CSR funds and if environment is one of your focus areas, we hope some of the requirements mentioned below might interest you:
1. Habitat Restoration of Lal Pahari, Aurangabad: The Aurangabad Forest Division was earlier part of Gaya Forest Division as one of its Ranges. Aurangabad Division was created in 2003.The working site i.e. Lal Pahari lies in Kanbehri PF. Due to illicit felling and quarrying of murram, the hills and hillocks have suffered heavy erosion.Due to low rainfall and poor moisture retention of the soil, most of the past plantations have failed or are having stunted growth. It is necessary to make an appropriate plan of action for improvement of soil and water(moisture) content in the forest area.
The lal pahari consists of twin hillocks with one side area of entire hills is 258750 sq.m or 25.87 Ha. The entire area is of barren and eroded land where there is no chance of natural regeneration in near future. Being adjacent to the the villages, there is immense biotic pressure. The area can be easily accessed and the prevention of soil erosion can be checked by using Vetiver grass plantation in entire area. It also includes those areas where plantations have been done in the past. The sign of earlier plantations can be seen in the foothills barring few on top also. The entire area of 25.87 has been selected for treatment. Time period of two years is required for the plan. In first year seedling of Khus(Vetiver spp.) will be prepared and next year these seedlings will be planted in the selected area.
2. Community Development At Gadchiroli: The Gadchiroli Forest Department is carrying various activities to enhance livelihood aspects of tribal people through Joint Forest Management committees. The department is in need of following:
- Camping tents
- Children play equipment to be installed in parks
- Sitting Benches for the park
- Energy efficient stoves and solar lights to be distributed among villagers
- Providing nature guide training
- Creating wildlife awareness among tourists and local communities.
This is the most needy and forested district and the local communities who are facing difficulties and suffering from lack of development since long in the district. The forest department and district administration would be more than happy to be associated with the companies for the social cause
3. Ecotourism Development at Bheemashankar Wildlife Sanctuary: The Pune Forest Division manages the sacred forest at Bheemashankar Wildlife Sanctuary which is famously known for its flagship species- Giant Squirrel. It is suggested to develop an ecotourism model for the sanctuary as it is largely known as pilgrimage site and wildlife and beautiful forests are not valued by the local communities who are dependent on income generated through temple activities. The ecotourism model will train local youths into nature guides and initiate homestays facilities for visiting nature enthusiasts. This will provide an year long alternate source of income for the local communities who are otherwise dependent on seasonal pilgrimage activities. The forest department is keen to partner with corporates who are willing to support this initiative.
4. Tree Plantation in Ahmednagar District, Maharashtra: The Social Forestry Department comes under Revenue & Forests Department of Government of Maharashtra. Social Forestry is a wing of Forests Department.The Social Forestry Department has a mandate of increasing the green cover in the state by 33% and for the same every year they plant around 10000 tree saplings on community land and take care of the same.
- Support for Tree Plantation: In Plantation Activity, main work is of digging pits. It being hard work, labourers are very much hesitant to come forward to do this work. As a result, plantation activity gets a setback. Representations regarding this difficulty with suggestion to use machinery / JCB pitting work were made to senior officers. After careful considerations and guidelines of convergence of other schemes / funds with NAREGA, higher authorities agreed to this. The cost of digging pits by machine / JCB will be around 4-5% of the total cost of plantation. It is to be taken from CSR fund. The remaining expenditure of around 95% will be done by government under NAREGA.
- Environment education awareness program : The department is involved in increasing environmental awareness among the school children, women, men, youth. These activities are not popular among the local communities as it lack resources and novelty. Therefore programs such as preparing nursery, identifying flora and fauna and preparing their list, vermi-compost, solar energy, improved Chula, bio-gas, water harvesting, avoiding use of the plastic bags and encouraging use of cloth /paper bags. could be initiated to generate the interest.
For the above projects we have identified NGO partners in respective locations not to mention the Forest Department is more than willing to collaborate with corporates. If any corporate is willing to support any of the above activities please contact us atinfo@ladybirdconsulting.co.in/shubha@ladybirdconsulting.co.in or call us at 9987013144.
