WWF meet in NITW

On 6th February, 2009 the Chemical seminar hall was the venue for a lovely interaction with Mr. S.Saravanan, representative of WWF-India who came down from Hyderabad for the event.

Professor Amba Prasad, the staff advisor of Nature club NITW first addressed the gathering. He said that it was a great honour for Nature club to be associated with an organization like WWF, and be a part of global programme. He stressed the importance of enhancing awareness about the need for conservation at a personal level and welcomed Mr.Saravanan on the podium.
Mr.Saravanan started off the event by asking the students to ‘come forward’ – that is, occupy the empty front benches, and then cleverly adding, that as engineering students of a premier engineering college like NITW, it was our responsibility to come forward and do our bit for nature. Sir first briefed us on the origins of WWF and WWF-India which was established as a Charitable Trust on November 27, 1969. It started off as a wildlife conservation organization with a focus on protecting a particular species of wild flora and fauna. Over the years, it has become the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 90 countries.

Further, Mr. Saravanan elaborated on WWF-INDIA’S ONGOING PROGRAMMES.

In our own Warangal, on the fields you would see on your bus journey to Hyderabad, WWF-India is involved with sustainable and profitable cotton cultivation initiatives. A part of the ‘THIRSTY CROPS’ initiative, WWF-India is working in Andhra Pradesh (cotton and rice) and Maharashtra (sugarcane & cotton) to promote better management practices, reduce use of water and chemicals and influence the entire supply chain to process and to procure “better” cotton and sugar.


WILDLIFE AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION is one of WWF’s principal areas of involvement. WWF is involved in the ‘Save the Tigers’ media campaign in partnership with Aircel, Rhino relocation programmes in Assam, protecting the Red Panda in Sikkim.

Mr.Saravanan made a very pertinent point relating to the practical difficulties involved, in carrying out conservation programmes in developing countries. Mr.Saravanan recalled an incident in Adilabad, essentially a tribal area, where the livelihood of inhabitants depends mainly on the forest where deforestation activities is leading to loss of Tiger habitat. In response WWF members’ pleas to sensitise the tribals, they replied – “Take your Tigers to Hyderabad, save your tigers there. Our forests are our only source of livelihood, what we will eat if we do not cut trees.”
Hence Nature Club NITW intends to collect from students and transport newspapers, old notebooks etc. to these tribal areas, where WWF will conduct recycling programmes, therefore giving the tribals an alternative source of employment, in addition to saving forest resources used to make paper.
Similarly, in Orissa we lose every year thousands of hapless turtles and other juvenile marine species that get inadvertently caught in fishermen’s nets. The government has made Turtle Excluding Devices mandatory but these are practically never used. There is a deadlock between traditional fisher folk, NGOs, trawlers and the government on this issue.

According to Hindu mythology, the Ganga is said to flow from the lotus feet of Vishnu or the hair of Shiva – right now though, it is filled with chemical wastes, sewage and the remains of human and animal corpses.

The LIVING GANGA PROGRAMME will help to protect the Ganges from the impacts of climate change, benefiting the 450 million people who rely on them.

TOURISM IS KILLING THE HIMALAYAS. WWF is making efforts in Ladakh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh to develop and propagate models of “community-based ecotourism” that are showing signs of success.

Finally Mr.Saravanan encouraged us to come up with our own original ideas to protect the environment around us. He encouraged us to do some research and conduct surveys – for example on the decreasing vulture population in Warangal district or decreasing levels of groundwater in the surrounding districts.
Nature Club NITW, under the guidance of WWF-India has hence decided to conduct a groundwater survey of the surrounding areas. Details of the event will be available shortly on our blog.