Launching program of the Trust
Although the Trust was formed and initiated by Santwana Lahiri in 2009, Mrs. Lahiri expired in 2010 whereby the other trustee Dr. Ajit K. Banerjee took over the responsibility of the Trust. Dr. Banerjee became seriously ill and expired in 2014. At this stage the other three trustees Mr. Sachikanta Chakraborty, Ms Sunanda Basu and Ms Santwana Lahiri wished to initiate the activities of the trust. Because of certain bureaucratic difficulties the Trust could not start functioning till May 2016. Thus, as a humble beginning The Trust organized a small launching program on September 24, 2016 in Sir R N Mookerjee Hall of Institute of Engineers to officially launch the activities of the Trust.
The program was attended by many retired and present IFS personnel and other dignitaries. Many of them recapitulated their memoirs of association with K. L. Lahiri. This was followed by a lively debate on “Ecotourism is Harmful for Ecology”. A lecture on man –animal conflict by Dr. P. Vyas, PCCF, Wildlife & CWLW was very well informative. This was followed by a thought-provoking national and international award-winning film show by Dr. S. Patel of Elements Picture Studio.
Donation to Sylvan World
Appreciating the commendable efforts of the cash strapped enthusiasts for “Sylvan World” in addressing environmental and societal issues, KLLFEE Memorial Trust decided to donate a sum of Rs. 20,000/-, wishing the magazine to kindle the flame of Public Awareness and continue to voice credible concern for our environment.
About Sylvan World
“Please do care for our living Planet”. The call for sustainability of the environment in which we live, is loud and clear. The oft-repeated terms like greenhouse emission, global warming, biodiversity conservation, renewable energy sources, stability of the ecosystem are issues which require to be deeply understood for due consideration in every sphere of our lifestyle. A strong conservation movement aiming to protect animals or plant species, specially the endangered ones, requires to be accelerated among the masses if we want to leave the world for our coming generations in at least the same shape as we had inherited it from our forefathers.
With the above objectives in mind a few IFS officers together with people representing a cross section of the society, basically hard-core conservationists have launched a magazine, Sylvan World, from Kolkata in simple, non-technical and popular language with attractive stories for PAN India circulation for common man to read and cherish. Sylvan World caters to this societal demand for storytelling on nature and to make it popular it encompasses Wildlife, Ecotourism, Environment and Heritage to bring the masses closer to nature and to make it more livable.
About Bhalopahar
Bhalopahar is a society in the Kuchia Dangorjuri village of Bundwan in Purulia. The society is sincerely working for the restoration of threatened ecological system in a dry area which the environmentalists have classified as an arid-3 zone. Due to lack of irrigation, the tribes – mainly the Santhals – had to give up their cultivation land to the brick kiln owners. This resulted to a vast deforestation of the area to provide fuel to those kilns. Bhalopahar volunteers by a dedicated approach has been able to plant more than 2,00,000 trees making a green forest in that area. The Organisation deals in Afforestation and Education of Tribal Children. For the underprivileged tribal children they are running a school which functions up to Class VIII. The numbers of students has remarkably increased because of the dedication of the associated people. They also run a very modest health-centre for the tribal and regularly arrange health-camps for them. Because of their untiring effort the area which once was an arid area, has now been converted to a green vibrant place.
The Trust is happy to help them in their ecology restoration process.
Donation to “Bhalopahar”
Appreciating the dedicated efforts of Bhalopahar in addressing environmental and societal issues, KLLFEE Memorial Trust was happy to donate a sum of Rs. 50,000/- for their work on ecological restoration and tribal welfare.
The KLLFE Memorial Trust had extended financial help to “BHALOPAHAR” for arranging water –supply for its upcoming primary health-center. The trust-representatives visited the place on 13th December, 2017 in this connection. The place, being in a rather dry area of Purulia, really suffers from water-scarcity. In spite of that the man-made forest of almost 10 lacs of trees is awe-inspiring. They also have a small firm where they are trying to save the traditional paddies. They run a school up to class VIII with almost 250 tribal students. This is not a Government school – but the trust provides them with stationeries and books and mid-day meal. One of the well wishers provides the dresses. Some of them also stay in the hostels. The sincerity and discipline among the students are noteworthy. There is no health-center near-by. With the help of sponsor, two rooms of the health-center have been constructed. Our help has been utilized for installing a tube-well attached to pump and an over-head water-tank has also been installed.
We sincerely wish the Trust to sail further by preserving and improving the eco-system and helping the tribals to improve their livelihood.
NATURALIST-GUIDE TRAINING PROGRAM, JULY 4-5, 2018 LATAGURI
A Naturalist-Guide Training Program was conducted at Lataguri on 4th and 5th July, 2018 by KLLFE Memorial Trust under the active guidance of the renowned conservationist Sri Raj Basu of Association for Conservation and Tourism (ACT) and in association with the Lataguri Resort Owners Welfare Association. The program was aimed at
• Upgrading present “Interested Guides” to “Naturalists” through theoretical and field training
• Creating awareness about local habitat amongst staff of hospitality units and jeep and toto drivers
• Creating awareness amongst shops and establishment owners of Lataguri.
The speakers for this program were : Sri Sachikanta Chakraborty, retired PCCF of Karnataka, Dr. Pranabesh Sanyal, retired Director of Sunderban Biosphere Reserve and Field director of Sunderban and Buxa Tiger reserves, Sri Ajoy Roy, Correspondent of Associated Press and Television News and active environmentalist, Sri Heerak Nandi , the renowned Photographer and conservationist, Sri Sukanta Das a very active naturalist and Sri Raj Basu.
The program took place in the dining hall of Panchavati Resort. In spite of a heavy downpour there were 131 participants on the first day. At the very beginning the president Mr. Barun Sarkar and the secretary Mr Dibendu Deb of Lataguri Resort Owners Association narrated the purpose of the program. This was followed by presentation of the speakers. The participants took part with great enthusiasm in the discussion section of each presentation. Since it was raining and the forest was also closed for monsoon the field-work had to be limited. Sri Raj Basu conducted a very interesting field work through which the participants got preliminary idea of how to map an area. Overall, the workshop appeared to enthuse the participants which we hope will be helpful for their advancement in future.
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On November 21, 2018 Saswati Lahiri along with Sri Raj Basu of Association for Conservation and Tourism (ACT) and members of Lataguri Resort Owners Welfare Association met a section of the participants of the last workshop. In spite of that being a weekday of a full tourist season a substantial nos of participants attended the meeting. A discussion with the participants was held and the certificates of the last workshop were distributed on that day.
Nature Study Camp Kanapahar, Purulia
Two of the trustee members Sri S. Chakrabarti and Ms S. Lahiri attended the Nature Study Camp organized by “Jara Jajabor” for children at Kanapahar , Purulia on 26 th December, 2019.
A debate and extempore talks were held and the children participated with great enthusiasm. Small gifts were awarded to all of the participants. Besides there were prizes for the groups which were to be distributed in the Annual Function of “Jara Jajabor”. Because of the pandemic unfortunately, this prize-giving ceremony got postponed indefinitely.
