An interest expressed and explored, soon turned into a one-day Nilgiris socio-cultural cum ecological experience that NNHS facilitated for Dakshin Endeavours, for their student group who were visiting India, from Australia for an experiential visit to India. The day long event that ran on February 11, 2020, took the students on a toda ethno-cultural experience to Kodithenmund, followed by a sacred grove immersion with the Kurumbas at Banagudi. The day ended with a Keystone campus walking tour. Deepti, one of the co-ordinators from Dakshin Endeavours, had this to share about the experience:
“We spent a day with NNHS visiting a Toda village located in the beautiful landscape of Nilgiris. Students were thrilled to interact with the community and got to spend time with them to learn about their culture and relationship with the land around. Jenner facilitated the interaction with the community and he was very patiently translating all the questions and answers. We also visited Banagudi where we got a glimpse of Kurumba folklores and visited some sacred sites. In the evening after the day’s outing, we were at Keystone office and a little bit tired. Sharada’s energy and enthusiasm was just what we needed to go through this amazing campus. She gave us an interactive campus tour and introduced us to the non-timber forest products collected by different indigenous communities. The most interesting part was the museum that was a storehouse of information about indigenous communities in Nilgiris. We saw the seed bank, paintings of Kurumba community, intricate embroidery patterns made by Toda community and musical instruments of various indigenous communities in Nilgiris etc. Our day at Nilgiri Natural History Society added a lot of content and enriching experience to our extended experiential learning programme in Western Ghats. “
– Deepti (Dakshin Endeavours)
Picture Credits: Asha Cherian (Dakshin Endeavours)
