Posted: May 09 2005,04:40 |
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PROGRESS: Has your organization seen
progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of
action and in your constituency during the first half of the Decade? |
Amongst
other activities of this society we have set up a Nature Park in 2000
in a village called Bungalow ki kandi 15 Kms from Mussoorie the nearest
hill station to the capital of India New Delhi. This Nature Park
has a museum and photogallery, nurseries with threatened and
endangered species of endemic plants for in situ rehabilitation by the
students of schools of Northern India which encourages rural/urban
youth interaction to narrow this fast increasing gap. We have camping
facilities and a restaurant offering ethnic cuisine apart from popular
cuisine.
PROGRESS: When we first came to this area of the Nature
Park the villagers were scared of seeing outsiders as they were always
suspicious that the outsiders meant them harm Today they have started
opening up to us and interacting with us. Volunteering amongst
the youth of this area which was unknown has improved. Schools who
could only define environmental issues as “POLYTHENE BAGS” can now talk
in terms of threatened and endangered species of plants and their in
situ rehabilitation and can identify them as well as know how they
contribute towards human welfare. Government employees scientists who
were busy collecting data and thought it was the end of their
responsibilities towards the departments paying their salaries
have today understood how ecotourism/sustainable tourism
development can help generate employment for the local youth and retain
them to their home towns and prevent their migration to bigger cities
leaving their old parents behind in search of menial jobs making this a
Money order economy.
The impact of the visiting tourist on the
local village has made the local villager more conscious of the
importance of conserving his cultural heritage to provide diversities
in cultures to retain their identity and thus attract attention of the
tourist to make them visit their village, watch their dances, eat their
food and buy souvenirs and inject money into their village’s economic
blood stream. The villager who was earlier scared of talking to the
outsider now understands his commercial and social importance.
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OBSTACLES: What are the most important obstacles that have prevented progress?
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OBSTACLES:
The
beneficiaries to our effort who give us maximum mileage are the
school students. The academic burden on the students is so much that
they do not have the time to devote to more important things like pay
attention to natures systems. They are made to cram the contents of
their books or work for their school’s founder day celebrations to get
their school a name of to retain their clientele of parents!! The laws
introduced by the supreme court to make children devote more time to
nature studies and environmental issues finds no implementation it
seems. This undue delay is causing us problems at the park also
threatening it’s closure due to financial reasons - low attendance of
students. Awareness on environmental issues amongst the general
public is negligible leading to deforestation, poaching of wild life
etc. Subsidised gas cylinders ahould be given to villagers to prevent
tree felling, trees are cut in our very park!!We have to watch
helplessly at times to avoid confrontation.
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ACTIONS: What actions have been
undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence during the first half of the Decade?
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ACTIONS:
We
have and are still trying our best to encourage Principals of schools
to become more conscious and to allow more time to students for such
activities.
We are seeking help from hotel owners to send more
groups to the nature park so that tourists may become eco conscious and
the hotelier wins the game of giving one extra night halt to
their guest for higher returns, this way transporters too come in line
with the same drill.
The scientists do their best BUT the
government (some departments)seem to have induced fear in their minds
and put restrictions to the extent to which knowledge can be dispersed
and disseminated! This reluctance is sometimes dissappointing.
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ADVICE: What advice would you like to
give to the Secretary-General and the General Assembly to promote a
culture of peace and nonviolence during the second half of the Decade? |
Developing
nations like India seem to run when the public is commanded say for
example by the Honourable Supreme Court.Desire for introducing
environmental studies at school level has not come automatically, it
has had to be introduced by an order of the Supreme Court!! Just
declaring an "International year of the Mountain" or similar highlights
it's importance to select quarters only and ends up as a superfcial tea
party as a celebration in a closed hall!! Ways and means should be
thought of for more effective implementation by governments.Fresh
drinking water supply is needed.This can happen only with active public
participation initiated by the government since NGOs are not repected.
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PARTNERSHIPS: What partnerships and
networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the
global movement for a culture of peace? |
We
admit lack of information and knowledge.We donot know which forums
promote or give information on such partnerships.Please advise.
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PLANS: What new engagements are
planned by your organization to promote a culture of peace and
nonviolence in the second half of the Decade (2005-2010)? |
CONFIDENTIAL:Our
plans will take a few years to make active public participation popular
in short, promote volunteering. To do this we need funds which we do
not have and are now on the brink of closing down for want of funds.
Our government officials do not encourage us to run an NGO and call us
(NGOs) thieves though they themselves run the most shady NGOs through
their own wives and get all funds siphoned out!! Our future plans if
not closure are dependant upon the financial aid that we can get.If
some international pressure is put, may be, this kind of activity will
be curbed.
India also perhaps doesnot have a treaty with the UN
for private cases of violation of human rights.We had registered a case
of child sacrifice but nothing came of it in the absence of such a
treaty and we had to cut a sorry figure and could not support right to
life of the vulnerable child!!
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Postal address of organization
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14-A, Circular Road, Dehra Dun, Uttaranchal India
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E-mail address of organization
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natureparkindia2000@rediffmail.com; naturepark@sancharnet.in; info@natureparkindia.com
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Website address of organization
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www.natureparkindia.com
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Highest priority action domain of a culture of peace
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DOMAIN PRIORITY: EMPLOYMENT GENERATION AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION THROUGH ECO/CULTURAL TOURISM DEVELOPMENT
We have realized that when eco tourism is promoted in an area like our
awareness grows the fastest and generates employment. Once there is
money in the pocket of the average villager Maslow’s laws come into
play and equality for women, human rights, Education for a culture of
peace: Equality of women; Democratic participation; Sustainable
development; Human rights;Understanding, tolerance, solidarity; Free
flow of information and knowledge; International peace and security
they all fall in place. In our opinion for sustainable development and
environmental awareness and activites/public participation play the
biggest role and thus we follow this path.
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Second priority action domain of a culture of peace
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WTO'S PROGRAM: ST_EP
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Highest priority country of action (or international)
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GEOGRAPHICAL PRIORITY:REGIONAL:GARHWAL/UTTARANCHAL
India is yet a developing nation aiming to be a world power. The most
neglected areas are those lying in difficult geographical terrain like
the Himalayan region. We have chosen to work regionally in this area to
help people realize the importance of cultural, eco and health tourism
as their primary bread earner. Adventure tourism and pilgrimage too
form a part of our activities.
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Second priority country of action (or international)
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