Art for Wildlife Conservation initiative - Ladakh

In 2015 when an opportunity to travel to the trans-himalayans region of Ladakh knocked on my door , a girl consumed with wanderlust could not resist the opportunity. So there I was at Bakula Rinpoche Airport, heavily clad with oxygen levels falling at 11000ft and om mani padme hum playing in the background on repeat. Every nook and cranny of Ladakh breathed of spirituality and it far exceeded my expectations but it also left me heart broken. 10 days into my trip and this is what I was left with , Melting glaciers, disappearing wetlands, recurrent flash floods, rampant plastic pollution , mini hills of plastic cropping up among real ones and lastly th endangered biodiversity of Ladakh specifically the Black Necked Crane also known as cha Thung Thung Karmo.I found myself staring at a small hill through my bedroom window weeping profusely and the only voice I heard was a choked , enraged whisper, “How could we let this happen ?” .I went back to Ladakh in 2016 determined with a small grant from Ashoka trust for research in Ecology and environment (ATREE) and collaborated with Ladakh Arts and MEDIA Organisation to conduct multiple workshops on the Black Necked Cranes across Ladakh. Introducing the concept of visual science communication through art . The project kickstarted with a temporary exhibit featuring 4 miniature sculptures of BNC’S soaring high at LAMO. The purpose of the exhibit was to raise awareness on the declining numbers of BNC’s.The Black-Necked crane is the state bird of Jammu and Kashmir and is listed in appendix 1 of CITES (The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), which is an indication of the bird being endangered.The sculptures were modelled out of regular epoxy , paper and wire. Each feather was painstakingly cut to precision and glued on to the body of the bird.

A series of workshops were conducted with children from various schools in Leh town , Shey and Korzok  and one conducted at LAMO. A total of four workshops were conducted. The workshops entailed building cranes out of paper and wire, bird watching trips with bird guides and binoculars were conducted , they were introduced to bird feeders and houses too. The concept of citizen science was also established amongst them which will allow them to gather data on wildlife and share it with conservationists or publish it on web portals for use by scientists.These workshops proved to be a great platform for environmental education and art for the children who participated.

Art for Wildlife Conservation was a small step towards protecting Ladakh's Endangered wildlife in the anthropocene age , but it demanded immediate extension and growth. The urgency of the matter at hand led me to initiate phase 2 of my work in Ladakh in 2017. Previous interactions with the children in Ladakh informed me that they know very little about the wildlife of Ladakh. My aim this time around was to focus more on conducting workshops with children in remote areas .I conducted my first workshop in the girls hostel at Lamdon School, Leh.It was a bright Sunday morning and these girls had no clue of how their day was going to shape up. To my surprise they were thrilled to be making some paper and wire Black -Necked Cranes on a Sunday! The workshop commenced with a talk on global warming and it's affects on wildlife in Ladakh and all over the world likewise. The focus of the workshop was the Black- necked cranes , which is the state bird of Ladakh. I proceeded to teach them how to build the cranes using paper and wire. After creating the cranes the girls showed great enthusiasm and wrote down their concerns regarding global warming and how it is changing the face of Ladakh.For the second workshop I  headed to a Govt school in Thiksey. Children from all the classes participated in the workshop. The session began with a talk and was followed by the construction of Black-Necked cranes. My third workshop was in a remote village called Satho ,near Chushul. When I and Rinchen (Media officer at LAMO) found our way into Satho which was difficult to locate , we were pleasantly greeted by a small wetland patch and many waders basking in the Sun.  This was one of the better days because spotting so many birds together in one wetland has become a declining phenomena. We crawled through the village and reached the Govt School in Satho. The children were very excited to participate in the workshop as no such activity had been undertaken before in the school. Very few people visit the school due to it's remote location and that explained their ecstatic demeanour. The workshop began with a talk given by me on the declining numbers of birds in Ladakh and all over the world likewise. We also discussed various measures that can be taken to save the wildlife of Ladakh. When I asked the children to name the animals found in Ladakh , in addition to the Black-Necked Crane and the Snow Leopard they also confidently yelled Elephants and Tigers. For these children their knowledge was limited to the books they were reading and the teachings they were receiving from their teachers.This is what motivates me to reach out and educate children about the wildlife found in Ladakh.The talk was followed by the construction of Black-necked cranes. The most exciting part about this workshop was that the children had spent a lot of time observing the Cranes as , the wetland in Satho is one of the breeding spots for the Cranes. They knew how the crane looked, how its eggs looked and the sound it made. This helped them to visualize better while constructing.They created beautiful paper Black -necked cranes. The workshop culminated on a very optimistic note. The children were made aware of why animals and  our environment is vital for their survival and why they should all live in harmony with their  immediate surroundings.

This Art for Wildlife conservation initiative snowballed into Ladakh’s first ever Bird Festival , which I conducted in collaboration with LAMO and Dara Shikoh foundation.It was a 7 days long affair and we planned a plethora of activities during this week. It commenced with a theatre performance on the birds of Ladakh followed by musical performances by Ladakh musicians on the significance of birds in folklore and how they are seen as sentient beings in Buddhism. We organised an art exhibition on the birds of Ladakh. Artists flew in from different parts of the country to participate , we had everything from paintings to sculpture to animation and textile art. Multiple workshops were conducted in different govt schools, I conducted a workshop at Puga Nomadic school with 95 children. Bird watching sessions were organised for children by avian experts .A day long conference was organised , where the DFO and other avian experts and ornithologists shared their research papers and spoke about why the numbers were dwindling. The festival culminated with a permanent installation of two 22ft tall sculptures of Black Necked cranes , made out of scrap metal by a local Ladakhi artist and currently stands tall in Leh town.

Vast patches of nothingness and the barren landscape of Ladakh smells strongly  of wisdom and immeasurable beauty . It puts you in a state of trance where you feel you are one with the surroundings and demands admiration and respect to protect and preserve the landscape and it's people . As outsiders in this foreign land we must all be aware of our responsibilities as tourists and not burden these young minds to seek solutions to problems they never contributed to. Let’s join hands and make our future generation psychologically, ecologically and physically more resilient.