WWF’s mission

‘To stop the degradation of our planet’s natural environment, and build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature’

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FROM THE CHAIRMAN’S DESK Looking back at 2016-17, it has been an eventful and fruitful year for WWF in rolling out the mission of the organization through our projects for conservation of species and habitat, variety of environment education, awareness and outreach programmes touching upon a wide array of themes, and policy and advocacy level interventions addressing relevant issues of the State. We have been able to successfully complete the two projects awarded to us by Department of Environment and Climate Change, on ‘Preparing a Position Paper on Climate Change in Kerala’ and also ‘Landuse/ Landform alterations due to Laterite Quarrying in Kerala and its Environmental Impacts’. When the final report of the Laterite Quarrying project was submitted to Mr. Sanjayan Kumar, IFS, Director, DoECC, he was very impressed by the quantum of work which went into it and the exhaustive report with text, data and images. Considering the high relevance of the study, in the background of the changing landuse of the State, he has asked us to make a presentation of the work in a joint meeting of the State Environment Impact Assessment Agency (SEIAA) and State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC). Another most impactful work that we have been able to carry out was the project titled ‘Marine Turtle Conservation along Kerala Coast’ in which we have been able to work with the seven Local Marine Turtle Conservation Groups (LMTCGs), voluntarily and very sacrificially working along the coastline for the protection of the very few number of Olive Ridley Turtles coming to make its nest and lay eggs. Ever since we undertook the survey along the coast few years back as part of the project titled ‘Status and Issues of Marine Turtles along the Coast of ’ and interacted with these groups and understood the challenges and hardships they faced, it has been our earnest desire to work with them in their capacity building, infrastructure development and awareness raising activities in their locations. This has been fulfilled to a great extent through our project funded by Johnson Lifts & Escalators, . As in the previous years, we have been able to undertake a wide array of activities under the banner of Environment Education including Nature Clubs, Nature Education Camps, Campaigns, Competitions, Exhibitions, Teachers Training Workshops, Seminars, Symposiums, Invited Lectures etc. and through this we have been able to extensively reach out to the masses. But one of the most impactful turn of event was the rolling out of the Volunteer Engagement Programme (VEP) in Kerala. Over the past many years, even though we have been engaging volunteers, it was more disorganized. But with the VEP, we have been able to make it more formal, structured and streamlined. We have been able to create Volunteer Hubs in some parts of the State and through our various VEP activities, we have been able to engage a large number of people, especially youth, in our mission. Over the past few years, we have been engaged with the Green Partnership Programme (GPP) of Kerala Forests & Wildlife Department, mainly for conservation of biodiversity outside forests, through the Asian Waterbird Census, Heronry Count, Common Bird Monitoring Programme, Sparrow Survey, Bird Atlas etc. This has been a fulfilling initiative for us. G. Vijaya Raghavan

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FROM THE STATE DIRECTOR’S DESK I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our volunteers, supporters, partners, sponsors, friends and well-wishers, who through their various contributions, have helped us in our mission in the State, with special mention to Department of Environment and Climate Change, GoK, CPR Environment Education Centre, Energy Management Centre, Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department and Kerala State Biodiversity Board. I would like to place on record our deepest sense of gratitude for all the support that we have received from WWF-India Secretariat, namely from Mr. Ravi Singh, Secretary General & CEO, Mr. Karan Bhalla, Chief Operating Officer, Dr Sejal Worah, Programme Director and all the other heads of the various programmes, namely Ms. Vishaish Uppal, Sustainable Livelihoods and Governance, Dr. Diwakar Sharma, Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Dipankar Ghose, Species and Landscapes, Dr. TS Panwar, Climate Change and Energy, Mr. Vinod Malayilethu, Marine, Dr. Shekar Kumar Niraj, TRAFFIC, Ms. Moulika Arabhi, Centre for Environmental Law, and Ms. Radhika Suri, Environment Education. The support given by the administrative divisions are also gratefully acknowledged, namely, Mr. Naresh Kapila, Human Resources and Manpower Development Division, Mr. Sanjeev Singh Rana and Mr. Sathish, Operations Division, Mr. Vivek Dayal and Mr. Rajesh Puri, Finance Division, Mr. Lovekesh Wadhwa, Ms. Roopali Srivastava, Mr. Umesh and Mr. Rahul, Conservation Products and Ms. Rituparna Sengupta and Mr. Himanshu Pandey, Communications Division. The colleagues at the other State Offices have also been sharing, supporting and encouraging us to tide over difficult situations and we would place on record our gratitude to Ms. Farida Tampal, Hyderabad and Telangana State Office, Mr. Hari Somashekhar, Karnataka State Office, Mr. Saravanan, Tamil Nadu State Office, Ms. Sangita Saxena, MP & Chattisgarh State Office, Ms. Vaibhavi Shitut, Maharashtra State Office, Ms. Saswati Sen, West Bengal State Office, Ms. Archita Baruah Bhattacharya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh State Office, Ms. Arti Gupta, Himachal Office, Mr. Mautik Dave, Valsad Divisional Office, and Mr. Arun Soni, Udaipur Office. We have had very good interaction with the Nilgiris Landscape Office in Coimbatore and we would like to place on record our thanks to Mr. Boominathan, Mr. Samuel Thomas, Mr. Tiju Thomas, Ms. Mullai Pandian and Mr. Vinayan. The moral support and timely advice given by the State Advisory Board under the leadership of Mr. G. Vijaya Raghavan as Chairman has been our guiding and correcting force and we are very grateful to all the Members of the SAB – Mr C. Balagopal, Dr. C. Bhaskaran, Prof. Saji Gopinath, Mr. Ravi DeeCee, Mr. Sunikumar, Mr. A.V. George and Mr. Suresh Elamon. The staff at Kerala State Office has worked in one mind and spirit and that is the only reason we have been able to achieve so much. I would like to place on record my deepest sense of gratitude and appreciation to my colleagues who have stood with me shoulder to shoulder to live out the mission of WWF in Kerala. Renjan Mathew Varghese

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STATE OFFICE PROFILE

Renjan Mathew Varghese, State Director

(2006 – Till date)

A.K. Sivakumar Senior Education Officer

(2000 – Till date)

L. Pushpakumari Accounts & Admn Officer

(1986 – Till date)

R. Harishkumar Administrative Assistant

(1998 – Till date)

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STATE ADVISORY BOARD PROFILE

Mr. G. Vijaya Raghavan Chairman (Former Member, Kerala State Planning Board & Director, SunTec)

Mr. C. Balagopal, Vice-Chairman (Former Managing Director, Terumo Penpol)

Mr. A.V. George, Member (Chairman, AVG Group of Companies)

Dr.C. Bhaskaran, Member (Professor (Retd.), Dept. of Extension, Kerala Agricultural University)

Mr. Ravi DeeCee, Member (CEO, DC Books)

Mr. C. Sunilkumar, Member (Senior News Photographer, & Former Member, State Wildlife Board)

Prof. Saji Gopinath, Member (Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management – )

Mr. Suresh Elamon, Member (Wildlife Photographer & Film Maker)

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SUPPORTERS  Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Govt. of India, New Delhi  WWF-India Secretariat, New Delhi  TRAFFIC-India, New Delhi  Department of Environment and Climate Change (DoECC), Govt. of Kerala  C.P. Ramaswamy Environment Education Centre (CPREEC), Chennai  Energy Management Centre (EMC), Govt. of Kerala  Kerala State Biodiversity Board (KSBB), Govt. of Kerala  Department of Museums & Zoos, Govt. of Kerala  Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), Govt. of Kerala  Kerala Birder & Yuhina Eco Media  Allianz Cornhill, Technopark Campus,  Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department (KFD), Govt. of Kerala  HSBC  Ecotourism Promotion Society (TEPS)  Johnson Lifts & Escalators, Chennai  Animal Welfare Board of India, Govt. of India  NIMS, Thiruvananthapuram

PARTNERS  GeoVin Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Thiruvananthapuram  Centre for Environment and Development (CED), Thiruvananthapuram  Academy for Mountaineering and Adventure Sports (AMAS),  Junior Chamber International (JCI )  Kerala Swathanthra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (KSMTF), Thiruvananthapuram  National Fishworkers Forum (NFF)  Schools and Colleges across Kerala  Green Roots Nature Conservation Forum, Thottapally,  Green Habitat, ,  Surya Arts & Sports Club, Chavakkad, Thrissur  Mahatma Arts & Sports Club, Chavakkad, Thrissur  Fighter’s Club, Chavakkad, Thrissur  Theeram Prakriti Samrakshana Samithi, Kolavipalam

MEDIA  I&PRD, Govt. of Kerala   Godfrey’s Graphics  SIMPLE Graphics

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CONTENTS 1. Conservation Programs and Projects 1

1.1. Projects 2 1.1.1. Preparation of Position Paper on Climate Change in Kerala 2 1.1.2. Land use/ Landform alterations due to Laterite Mining & Quarrying in Kerala and its Environmental Impacts 2 1.1.3. Free CFL distribution as part of ‘Going beyond Earth Hour’ 2 1.1.4. Marine Turtle Conservation Project along Kerala Coast 3 1.1.5. HSBC Kerala Bird Race 2016 at Thiruvananthapuram 5 1.1.6. Common Bird Monitoring Program 2016 5 1.1.7. Bird Atlas in Thiruvananthapuram 6 1.1.8. Asian Water Bird Census 2017 7 1.1.9. Setting up of Honeybee Museum at Thenmala 7

1.2. Support to other Program Areas 7 1.2.1. Wildlife Trade &Mortality reporting to TRAFFIC- India 7

2. Environment Education Programs 8

2.1. EE Projects 9 2.1.1. Wipro earthian 2016 9 2.1.2. Urja Kiran 2016-17 10 2.1.3. Wild Wisdom Quiz 2016 10 2.1.4. Campus Bird Count 11

2.2. Nature Club 11 2.2.1. Beach Clean-up at Beach 11 2.2.2. Orientation Programme for WWF Nature Club affiliated to AMAS 11 2.2.3. Concept note on WWF as Facilitator for the Forests Clubs in Kerala 11 2.2.4. Inauguration of Dharani Eco Club, KAU Campus, Mannuthy 12

2.3. Commemoration of Environmentally Important Days 12 2.3.1. Earth Day 12 2.3.2. World Migratory Bird Day 12 2.3.3. International Day for Biological Diversity 13 2.3.4. World Environment Day 13 2.3.5. World Ocean Day 14 2.3.6. International Tiger Day 14 2.3.7. International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer 15 2.3.8. Wildlife Week 15 2.3.9. Salim Ali Day 15 2.3.10. World Wetlands Day 2017 16

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2.3.11. World Sparrow Day 16 2.3.12. Earth Hour 2017 16

2.4. Friday Forum 17

2.5. Sunday Bird Walk 18

2.6. Nature Education Camps 18 2.6.1. Field Study Trip to Tiger Reserve for MSc Wildlife Biology Students from TERI University 18 2.6.2. Reframing Nature Camp curriculum in Silent Valley National Park 18

2.7. Classes and Lectures Delivered 18 2.7.1. Talk at P.N. Panicker Foundation 18 2.7.2. Talk at Satellite Symposium on Climate Change & Aquatic Ecosystems 18 2.7.3. Orientation Session for NSS Volunteers at MG College 19 2.7.4. Class in Refresher Course in Environmental Science 19 2.7.5. Session on Birdwatching at College 19 2.7.6. Orientation for Teacher Trainees at NSS Training College, 19

3. Networking 20

3.1. Brainstorming and Orientation on Volunteer Engagement Programme 21 3.2. Volunteer Engagement Program (VEP) Launch 21 3.3. Liaison work for Climate Change and Energy Programme 21 3.4. Volunteer Engagement Programs 21 3.4.1. Tree Conservation Campaign in Thiruvananthapuram 21 3.4.2. Tree Conservation Campaign in 22 3.4.3. Energy Conservation Campaign 22 3.4.4. Energy Conservation Rallies 22 3.4.5. Campaign on Urban Biodiversity 22 3.4.6. Forests & Water Campaign 22 3.5. KSERC Workshop on Promoting Space Technology based Tools and Applications towards Governance and Development 23 3.6. Nomination for River Weeks Award 2016 23 3.7. Discussion on possible association with JCI 23 3.8. Report release function of India’s Development Co-operation 23 3.9. ISRS Thiruvananthapuram Chapter Meeting and GIS Day Talk 23

4. Publication 24

4.1. Bi-monthly newsletter Mruthika 25 4.2. Write-up on the escalating Stray-dog issue in Thiruvananthapuram City and other parts of Kerala 25

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4.3. Article on Integrated Water Resource Management 25 4.4. Article on Tigers 25 4.5. Article on Water and Power Crisis 25

5. Internship 26

6. Policy and Advocacy Level Interventions 28

6.1. Proposed Athirappally Hydro Electric Project 29 6.2. Response on the proposal to introduce 15,000 more autorickshaws within Thiruvananthapuram City 29 6.3. HELP Foundation’s initiatives towards Paravur Lake & 29 6.4. Smart City Proposal for Thiruvananthapuram Corporation 29 6.5. Workshop on Ecotourism in Protected Areas 29 6.6. Workshop on Shailesh Nayak Committee Report on CRZ 29 6.7. Kerala Going 100% Renewable Energy by 2050 30 6.8. LPR 2016 and Multimedia Presentation 30 6.9. Eco-restoration of Lake 30 6.10. Meeting on the India High Range Mountain Landscape Project for Idukki Dist 30 6.11. WWF Work on Human Elephant Conflicts 30

7. Proposals Prepared and Submitted 31

7.1. Proposals to Department of Environment and Climate Change, Govt. of Kerala 32 7.2. Proposal to KSCSTE 32 7.3. Proposal to NIMS and Fisheries Department 32 7.4. Project Proposal for National Environment Awareness Campaign (NEAC 2016) 32 7.5. World Rivers Day 2016 32 7.6. Review of WWF Projects and Publications for replicable ones in Kerala 32 7.7. Note on possibility of association in WWF-India Projects & Programmes 32 7.8. Discussion with GeoVin Solutions on new joint project proposal to DoECC 33 7.9. Meeting with Toonz Animation 33 7.10. Proposal for Water Conservation Campaign 33 7.11. Proposal on Marine Turtle Conservation 33

8. Sales/ Fundraising 34

8.1. Sales 35 8.1.1 Promotion of sales of WWF-India Conservation Products 35 8.2. Fundraising 35 8.2.1 Approaching major corporates for fund raising under their CSR mandate 35 8.2.2 WWF Corporate Presentation 36 8.2.3 Discussion with Director, Ecotourism 36

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9. Participation in Exhibition 37

9.1. WWF Stall at GHSS Manacaud, Thiruvananthapuram 38 9.2. WWF Stall at St. Mary’s College, Thrissur 38 9.3. WWF Stall in the KSC 2017 Expo at , 38 9.4. WWF Stall in the NBC 2017 Expo 38 9.5. WWF Stall at University College, Thiruvananthapuram 38

10. Other Activities 39

10.1. Paper on Recommendations to Kerala Fisheries – The Way Forward 40 10.2. Paper presentation in the NABS National Conf at Madurai Kamaraj Unty 40 10.3. Paper presentation in SASA National Conference 40 10.4. Paper for the National Conference on Environment and Pollution 40 10.5. Paper for the National Conference on Frontiers in Eco-Biological Sciences and its Applications 2017 40 10.6. Discussion Meeting on Bird Flu in the State 41 10.7. Humane Education Programme in Schools in Kerala 41

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1 Conservation Programs and Projects

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1.1 Projects

1.1.1 Position Paper on Climate Change in Kerala The project titled “Preparation of Position Paper on Climate Change in Kerala” was awarded to WWF-India by Department of Environment and Climate Change (DoECC), Govt. of Kerala as a follow-up of the formulation of the State Action Plan on Climate Change. The position paper was prepared in the most comprehensive manner, mainly highlighting the contributing and impacted sectors with a lot of primary and secondary data compiled from almost all available sources. Papers were invited from sectoral experts on each aspect to make the document more authentic. Other related details like seminars and symposiums organised, ongoing and completed projects, expertise available at individual and institutional level etc were all covered. The report was revisited, reworked, and refined. Mr. G. Vijaya Raghavan and Dr. Rajasekharan were instrumental in getting the required information from the State Planning Board. The Kerala State Office completed the project and the Final Reports in 3 parts, one primary report and the second one with the sectoral papers contributed by the various experts and the third report with all the appendix and annexures were submitted to Mr. Sanjayan Kumar, IFS, Director, Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Kerala.

1.1.2 Landuse/ Landform alterations due to Laterite Hillock Mining and its Environmental Impacts in Kerala This is also another project awarded to WWF-India by DoECC based on the question raised in the Legislative Assembly on the issue. The study was conducted over a time frame of one year covering 7 districts in the State where laterite mining is very prevalent. The data from Dept. of Mining and Geology was used as the baseline information. Thorough field visits were conducted for comprehensive data collection. Secondary data on ground water was also collected from the State Ground Water Board. The primary and secondary data was brought to a common platform using GIS. Remote sensing data was also used for change analysis and to assess the extent and depth of laterite mining. The final report writing took place in April and the report was revisited, reworked, and refined during May. The details on the labour related issues and occupational hazards were added. In June, the Kerala State Office jointly with GeoVin Solutions Pvt. Ltd. successfully completed the project and submitted the Final Reports in 8 parts i.e. one primary report and the other seven district level reports, to Mr. Sanjayan Kumar, IFS, Director, Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Kerala. There was a long discussion on the findings and outcome of the project. It has been requested to present the findings of this study to the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and State Expert Advisory Committee (SEAC) who advises the Government on environmental related projects.

1.1.3 Free CFL distribution as part of ‘Going beyond Earth Hour’ WWF in association with EMC, KSEB and Dept. of Environment and Climate Change has been organizing events at various locations in coastal areas, forest tribal settlements, slums, Harijan Settlement Colonies etc. in association with local counterparts like AMAS, Olive Charitable

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Society, COME Ministries etc. to distribute the CFLs to the real beneficiaries. As part of the Eco-Development and Tribal Welfare initiatives of the Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department, the Department joined hands with WWF to freely distribute CFLs to the tribal households in Kattilapara under the Shendurney WLS on 3 September. This was an extension of our Earth Hour programme. In this regard, another event was organized on 6th October in association with COME at Gundukadu Colony – a prominent slum dwelling located right inside the Thiruvananthapuram City, and on 12th October in association with AMAS Neyyattinkara in the Rameswaram Ward of Neyyattinkara Municipality in which around 400 CFLs were distributed. The Municipality Chairperson was the Chief Guest of the event. Similar events were organized at on 16th October, and Kavalakulam on 24th October respectively. The report along with the beneficiaries benefitted in each location, no. of CFLs distributed etc. with the event details of November, along with photo gallery was prepared, printed, and distributed to the relevant officers like Chairman, KSEBL, Director, EMC, Director, DoECC and others. The 5000 CFLs handed over to WWF by KSEB in January was distributed to families from the most backward sections of the society through various events organized with local partners. The full report with details of the events and its photo gallery along with the signed list of beneficiaries was handed over to Mr. Elangovan IAS, Chairman & MD, KSEB Ltd by the State Director.

1.1.4 Marine Turtle Conservation along Kerala Coast The Kerala State Office jointly with the Marine Programme of WWF-India has partnered with Johnson Lifts & Escalators on a project to conserve Marine Turtles along the coastline of Kerala titled ‘Marine Turtle Conservation along Kerala Coast’. This project focuses on mapping threats to Marine Turtles on Kerala’s nesting beaches, engaging with stakeholders to build capacity for conservation initiatives, addressing Turtle by-catch in fishing nets and promoting in-situ protection of Turtle nests with local communities. WWF-India’s approach is to ensure collaborative efforts between fisher communities, government agencies, Local Marine Turtle Conservation Groups (LMTCGs), influential institutions such as the Church as well as people in order to achieve conservation goals.

In the first few months of the project duration, WWF-India’s field teams focused on building relationships with the LMTCGs working in Kerala. This exercise required multiple meetings over a period of time to win over their trust and agree in the conservation approach. WWF- India conducted thorough assessment of the conservation activities being undertaken by these groups and identified the requirements on-ground to further strengthen their efforts. Field visits were carried out to Thrissur and Chavakkad on 13th April and Thottapally in Alappuzha on 27th April to meet with the local groups to understand their work, assess the needs and to chart the way forward. In the second step, the State Director, Mr. Vinod Malayilethu, Senior Co-ordinator, Marine Programme and Mr. Murukan Pareparambil, Volunteer visited Neeleswaram on 7th July and Kolavipalam on 8th July and had detailed interaction with the LMTCGs. The requirements at the local level from Nileswaram, Kolavipalam, Chavakkad and Thottapally have been compiled, discussed, and the action plan was approved with the go ahead for the field-level implementation.

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Initially the project activities have progressed slower than expected as it took longer time to meet various groups and interact. However, once the ground work was laid out, and the Marine Turtle nesting season started off in October, the on-field activities took off to a great start with some components running parallel and in other cases one following the other. The State Director and Mr. Murukan Pareparambil, Volunteer visited Chavakkad on Wednesday 19th October, Kolavipalam on 20th Oct, Thottapally on 21st Oct, and Nileswaram on 28th Oct and interacted with the local Marine Turtle Conservation Groups for secondary data collection and discussions on further action plan of the project.

A Youth and Students Sensitisation Workshop was organized at Jama Ath Higher Secondary School, Pazhayangadi, District on Saturday 19 Nov 2016. The local organizing and co- ordination was carried out by Mr. Sudheer, a Teacher in the School and President, Naithal Turtle Conservation Samithi, Neeleswaram. Around 110 School Students, few genuinely interested Teachers, local Youth Club Members and others participated in the workshop. The State Director addressed the gathering as part of the inaugural function. The sessions were handled by Mr. Sudheer and another Resource Person from Society for Environment Education Kerala (SEEK), Kannur.

The work on the proposed GIS Work to develop the Marine Turtle Information System for Kerala Coast (MTIS-KC) with the technical support of GeoVin Solutions Pvt Ltd is already on and progressing well. We are buy a Laptop and LCD Projector for each of the LMTCGs in Chavakkad, Kolavipalam and Neeleswaram as part of their infrastructure building exercise to improve their education, awareness, and outreach programmes on Marine Turtles among the local community, especially youth and students.

Marine Turtles have started coming to the Kerala Coast. There are two confirmed nestings from Chavakkad and one from Thottapally. For both the nests, since they were below the high tide line, the eggs have been collected and moved to an artificial nest in a more secure location along the beach. The relocation of the nests has been carried out by the LMTCGs, namely Green Habitat in Chavakkad and Green Roots Nature Conservation Forum in Thottapally. Further to this, in the month of February, Mahatma received 2 nests, Surya received around 7 nests, Theeram received 4 nests and Naithal received 2 nests. Most of the nests have been relocated in land for extra protection. Under this project, we have fabricated metal enclosures and given to the Local Marine Turtle Conservation Groups (LMTCGs) for relocating and protecting the nests and eggs from dogs, jackals, and humans.

The work of making the various collaterals in the form of hoardings, banners, stickers, handbooks, activity book etc. also went well with quality outcomes. The awareness and outreach programmes for the various target groups in the society like students, youth, general population planned for the various location were organized under the initiative and full involvement of the LMTCGs. All the resource materials and other collaterals required for these programmes have been developed in local language and printed in adequate quantities.

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The work of developing the Marine Turtle Interpretation Centre at Kolavipalam under Theeram Prakriti Samrakshana Samithi is going on with the roofing work started initially. The art work for the Marine Turtle Interpretation Centre was carried out at Godfrey’s Graphics. Twelve new panels have been made. Layout of another eight photo panels are also under progress. The team of artists led by Godfrey Das has almost completed the art work on the interior and exterior walls of the Centre. In total, the project is progressing very well with the desired outcomes and Johnson Lifts & Escalators has given us an extension of 3 months more to complete the project in its full essence.

1.1.5 HSBC Kerala Bird Race 2016 at Thiruvananthapuram The Bird Race, the open bird watching programme aimed to popularize bird watching as a first step into nature watch and conservation held in 9 sites of the district came out with the highest ever number of 187 bird species. The event was coordinated by WWF-India in association with Yuhina Canopy and Kerala Birders with the support of HSBC. The range of participants varies from 7 to 67, students to IT professionals, teachers, Govt. officials and retired veterans. The nine sites covered were Kallar- (77), Bonaccord (51), Arippa (61), Punchakkari-Vellayani wetlands (75), major birding places within the city including Museum-Zoo premises (61), Kottur (62), reservoir & adjacent areas (77), Kadhinamkulam (60), and Akkulam – Veli wetlands (58). The number within brackets are the number of species found in each site. Out of 187, 40 were migratory including , Black tailed , Booted , Pacific golden , , Wood Sand piper, Green , , and Kentish Plover. Though all these happy birding experience were shared by each group, every team was very much concerned of the habitat destruction happening in all these sites. The presence and number of many new species were found, the disturbing fact is that all of them are typical dry habituated ones. This fact indicates the ground level reality of global warming and climate change in our State. To ensure the sustainability of the programme, the organisers offered the participants regular monthly Sunday Bird Walk. The detailed article on Kerala Bird Race in Thiruvananthapuram along with photographs have been shared with I & PRD, Govt. of Kerala on their special request to be included in Kerala Calling, the official magazine of Government of Kerala in English.

1.1.6 Common Bird Monitoring Programme 2016 “Green Partnership Programme”, a network of NGOs working in the field of bird documentation across the State has come together to conduct the Common Bird Monitoring Programme (CBMP), also known as Bird Count as the same happens during the Onam holidays, from 16th to 19th of September 2016. WWF-India is the co-ordinating agency for the three southern districts. We have conducted the Orientation Programme for Onam Bird Count for Thiruvananthapuram and districts on 5th and 6th September 2016 at Govt. Women’s College, Thiruvananthapuram and SN College, Kollam respectively. This was a day- long (10.00am to 4.00pm) programme with three sessions conducted with the support of Social Forestry Wing of Kerala Forests & Wildlife Department. The event at Thiruvananthapuram was inaugurated by Sri. J.R. Ani, Asst. Conservator (SF) Thiruvananthapuram and at Kollam by Sri. Koshy John, Asst. Conservator (SF) Kollam. The

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sessions were led by Senior Education Officer, Mr. Govind G., Mr. Sujith V. Gopalan and Mr. Jaichand Johnson, WWF-India volunteers, and experts in the field. We have given orientation to more than 60 students and individuals in all the three districts. The participants observed the birds in the field from 16-19 Sept for 15 minutes’ time slots and the observations have been uploaded on www.ebird.org. Our volunteers and staff also became part of this participatory programme.

Kerala State Office conducted an Orientation Programme on CBMP and its sub components, the Campus Bird Count, and Great Backyard Bird Count on 17th Feb 2017 at Mount Tabor Training College, . Around 83 Teacher Trainees attended the programme and towards the end of the programme they were very enthusiastic in being part of this. The objective of CBMP, CBC and GBBC and the processes involved was well explained to them. They were introduced to e-birding and common birds of Kerala. Senior Education Officer and Mr. Govind G., VEP Coordinator led the sessions.

1.1.7 Bird Atlas in Thiruvananthapuram Kerala State Office has been conducting lot of bird documentation programmes in the 3 southern districts of the State as part of Green Partnership Programme with Kerala Forests & Wildlife Department. These programmes engage many volunteers in different activities. As part of this programme, it was decided to start the preparation of ‘Bird Atlas’ for all districts that describes abundance of birds across each district. State Director and Senior Education Officer attended the meeting held on 11th and 12th June 2016 at College of Forestry, Thrissur. Sri. Jaichand Johnson, Smt. Neha Waikar, Sri. Arun C.G., Sri.C. Harikumar and Sri. Govind G., our VEP members also attended the meeting on behalf of WWF-India. A subsequent meeting specific with details on Thiruvananthapuram Bird Atlas was convened at the State Office on 23rd June 2016 in which around 10 bird experts participated.

Trivandrum Bird Atlas had a royal start with 42 bird watchers, including expert birders and budding bird watchers at Palace in July. The district-level inauguration held in front of the , which is one of the sampling sites at 7.30am. Sri.C.S. Yalakki IFS, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Social Forestry) inaugurated the survey in presence of Prince Adithya Varma and his wife Smt. Resmi Varma, also a bird enthusiast. Two sessions of birding were done within the palace premises resulted 14 species of birds though it was raining. The ‘Pocket Guide to Birds of Kerala’ was released by Prince Adithya Varma. Renjan Mathew Varghese, State Director of WWF-India, Sri.JR Ani, Asst. Conservator of Forests, Sri. Ramesh MB of TNHS and Sri. A. K. Sivakumar, Coordinator of the Survey also spoke on the occasion.

The field level observations in pre-determined samples were carried out in 162 locations in non-forest areas. Under the co-ordination of the Senior Education Officer, 12 teams traversed the entire district looking for birds from 6.30am to 10.30am. Though it was started on July 23rd, the work was completed by 11th September. Around 150 species of birds have been documented through this intensive task.

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The volunteer team of WWF-India completed the dry season data collection for the preparation of Trivandrum Bird Atlas by 13th March 2017. It was a 60-day long bird documentation in the non-forest areas of Thiruvananthapuram district in preselected 158 sampling sites. By this we have completed both the wet and dry seasons. It was an intensive work involving around 20 volunteers covering the entire district.

1.1.8 Asian Waterbird Census 2017 Being part of Green Partnership Programme and under WWF’s Volunteer Engagement Programme (VEP), Kerala State Office conducted the AWC in the three southern districts following to previous 2 years. Our volunteers were engaged in this on 14th Jan at Kollam, 15th at and 21st at Thiruvananthapuram at different locations. 6 sites in Kollam, 6 in Pathanamthitta and 9 in the capital district were covered. Each site was counted between 6.30 to 11am under the leadership of an expert birder along with a photographer and one or two volunteers. It was a venture with the support of Social Forestry Wing of Kerala Forests & Wildlife Department. This report will be submitted to Dr. P.O. Nameer, State Coordinator and finally fed into the database of ‘Wetlands International’. We covered 2 of the 3 Ramsar sites of the State also through this process. The Census brought out a higher number of birds in all the three districts both in species and individuals. In Kollam, it resulted in a count of 9378 birds belong to 65 species including 32 migratory, whereas in 2016 it was 5303 birds belonging to 59 species. The same in Thiruvananthapuram counted 4442 birds belonging to 77 species including 27 migratory, whereas in the last year, the count was 2431 birds belonging to 49 species. In Pathanamthitta, the count was 8968 birds belonging to 74 species including 34 migratory, whereas in 2016 it was 4228 birds belonging to 50 species.

1.1.9 Setting up Honeybee Museum at Thenmala The Directorate of Ecotourism and Thenmala Ecotourism Promotion Society (TEPS) has requested WWF to take up the Consultancy Project for setting up a Honey Bee Museum in the space available adjacent to the Reception Centre in Thenmala. It is envisaged to put up a big model of a Honey Bee and other related artefacts in the Museum along with 27 Information Panels on the theme. The State Director is presently compiling information on Honey Bees. The art work will be carried out by a team led by Mr. Godfrey Das. This will include art work on the walls, installations, information panels etc. The work is to be completed within the next 3 months. Initial discussions and site visits are on. The first site visit was carried out on 14th December to understand the layout of the area and to have the initial discussions with the TEPS authorities.

1.2 Support to other Program Areas

1.2.1 Wildlife Trade & Mortality Reporting to TRAFFIC-India The State Director compiled the Wildlife Trade and Mortality Report and sent it to TRAFFIC- India on the dates of 29th April, 23rd & 31st May, 20th and 28th June, 5th, 13th & 27th July, 9th August, 26 September, 24th October, 3rd, 7th, 8th, 25th and 28th of November and 7th, 12th and 19th of December in 2016 as well as on 21st and 27th February, 1st March in 2017.

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2 Environment Education Programs

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2.1 EE Projects

2.1.1 WIPRO earthian 2016 The WIPRO earthian 2016 programme was launched in the Capital City of Kerala under the initiative of WWF-India with the support of C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre (CPREEC), Chennai. It was a Teachers Training Workshop on 9th August held at Museum Auditorium in which 45 Teachers from 35 schools in the district attended the workshop. The workshops had two technical sessions on ‘Water and Sustainability’ and ‘Biodiversity’ which were led by Renjan Mathew Varghese, State Director, and A. K. Sivakumar, Senior Education Officer of WWF-India. The Teachers and students were briefed about the objectives, themes, methodology and expected outcome of the programme by Sri. U. T. Arasu of CPREEC. WIPRO earthian was represented in the workshop by Ms. Arathy Hanumanthappa who gave a national view of the programme and its achievements over the years.

As requested by the teachers who participated in the WIPRO earthian 2016, another follow up programme was conducted for students of the participant schools on 16th august at the Museum Auditorium in Thiruvananthapuram. Around 40 students participated in the orientation programme and the project outline and frame works were explained to them on the themes of Water Conservation and Biodiversity. The students were expected to submit their projects by 15th October 2016, with evaluation by a national panel of experts for its innovativeness, methodology, outcome, and creativity regarding the final representation in the form of the project report which can incorporate poems/ songs, photos and videos, charts, and diagrams etc. Senior Education Officer visited L’ecole Chempaka, Saraswathy Vidyalaya and Holy Angels ISC Schools in connection with Wipro - earthian programme. He checked the projects and suggested necessary corrective measures too.

In November, the earthian Programme of WIPRO was co-ordinated and conducted with the involvement of the Schools in Thiruvananthapuram. The project reports from the school teams were received at the State Office and an initial review was carried out by the State Director and the Senior Education Officer. The reports have been submitted to CPREEC for the final evaluation.

The regional recognition event for earthian was organized by WWF-India and CPREEC, Chennai in association with the WIPRO Earthian Programme on 9th February 2017 at Trivandrum Hotel at 10.00am. Each school presented their projects on Sustainability of Water and Biodiversity. The presentations followed by active discussions and deliberations finally evolved into an idea-sharing and developing process which will give the much-needed boost to such projects in future. The student teams from Le’Cole Chempaka International, Le’Cole Chempaka ICSC and Holy Angels ICSE schools received the Regional Winners Awards of Wipro 'earthian'. The awards were given by Dr.C. Bhaskaran, Member, State Advisory Board, WWF- India and Member, Working Group, State Planning Board. The other participant schools like Saraswathi Vidyalaya, Army Public School and Kendriya Vidyalaya, Akkulam also presented their projects and received mementos and certificates.

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2.1.2 Urja Kiran 2016-17 Urja Kiran, the Energy Conservation Awareness Campaign (ECAC) being supported by EMC, Kerala and CED, Thiruvananthapuram was held in Ongallur and Pattithara Gramapanchayats falling under Pattambi and constituencies respectively on 23rd February as forenoon and afternoon sessions. In Ongallur Grama Panchayat, 40 women from different Kudumbasree units participated in the programme. The event was inaugurated by Sri. Jishar Parambil, President of the Gramapanchayat. Sri. A.K. Sivakumar, Senior Education Officer from WWF-India briefed on the programme and its objectives in his welcome address. Sri. Murukan P.P., Resource Person of EMC and Active Volunteer of WWF led the session on Energy Conservation mainly in household system as it holds the lion’s share of the State’s electricity consumption. Sri. P. P. Krishnan, Lecturer, Electronics & Communication Dept., Victory ITI, led the training session on assembling the LED bulbs.

In Pattithara Grama Panchayat, 35 women and 12 men from different Kudumbasree units participated in the programme. The event was inaugurated by Sri. M.K. Pradeep, Vice- President of Thrithala Block Panchayat. All the other sessions were same as above. The faces of the women participants really lit up when the bulbs assembled by them were lighted up. Few Kudumbasree units has shown interest in establishing LED assembling units under the participant’s leadership.

The continuation of Urja Kiran, the Energy Conservation Awareness Campaign (ECAC) being supported by EMC, Kerala and CED, Thiruvananthapuram was held in Vaniyamkulam Grama Panchayat falling under Shornur Constituency on 2nd March 2017. 70 women from different Kudumbasree units participated in the programme. The event was inaugurated by Smt. M.P.Priya, President of the Grama Panchayat. Sri. A.K. Sivakumar, Senior Education Officer from WWF-India briefed on the programme and its objectives in his welcome address. Sri. Murukan Pareparambil, Resource Person of EMC led the session on Energy Conservation, mainly in household system as it contributes the lion’s share of State’s electricity consumption. Sri.PP.Krishnan, Lecturer, Electronics & Communication Dept., Victory ITI, Edappal led the hands on training session on assembling LED bulbs.

2.1.3 Wild Wisdom Quiz 2016 The City-level competition of the 9th edition of Wild Wisdom Quiz culminated in St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, at Thiruvananthapuram with Master. Siddhan Gokula & Sharun Akash of Atomic Energy Central School, Kudamkulam emerging as the City-level Winners. In the quiz competition held right from morning 8am and extending up to 4pm, organized into two categories of Junior and Middle, totally 33 teams competed in the Junior category and 47 teams in the Middle category. Mas. Joshua John Darvy and Muhammad Shahansha of Vimala Public School, and Hrudaya R Krishnan and Hrudayesh R Krishnan of St. Thomas HSS won the second and third place. The quiz was mastered by Prof. E. Kunhikrishnan, noted environmentalist and quizzer of Kerala. Mr. S. Radhakrishnan, Deputy Director (Wildlife Education), Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department, Mr. Renjan Mathew

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Varghese, State Director, WWF-India and Mr. A.K. Sivakumar, Senior Education Officer, WWF- India were present all through the event and addressed the participants. Senior Education Officer visited Vimala Public School at Thodupuzha, Bhavans Vidya Mandir at Thrissur, Bhavans Varuna Vidyalaya at , Bhavans Adarsh Vidyalaya at Kakkanad, Saraswathy Vidyalaya at Thiruvananthapuram and School of Good Shepherd at Thiruvananthapuram and distributed the prizes from 17th - 19th October 2016.

2.1.4 Campus Bird Count Campus Bird Count, the sub component of CBMP was coordinated by Kerala State Office in 5 colleges and 1 school from Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam Districts. The CBC was led by our volunteers, Mr. Govind G. in NSS College, Nilamel & Le’Cole Chempaka, Thiruvananthapuram, Mr. Anu John in St. Stephen’s College, Pathanapuram & Fatima Mata National College, Kollam, Dr. Jishnu R. in SN College, Kollam, and Mr. Sahil Salim in St. Gregorios College, Kottarakara. Around 80 students and teachers made use of this opportunity to enter and explore the world of bird watching. They were also trained to upload the data in ebird.org. Being a follow up of this programme, Kerala State Office asked them to do one or two regular monthly birding in the campus as part of their annual campus bird count.

2.2 Nature Clubs

2.2.1 Beach Clean-up at Varkkala Beach The Nature Club Members of MGM School, Varkala did a great job showing their commitment towards Mother Earth and society by cleaning up the entire length of Papanasam Beach at Varkala littered with banana leaves, flowers, plastic and other pooja materials left over by thousands of people who had visited the area the previous day as part of Karkkidaka Vavu. The Municipality was also part of the programme this year. WWF-India advised the collection of the waste in a segregated manner to analyse the major pollutants and make a strategy to reduce and properly dispose it in the coming years.

2.2.2 Orientation Programme for WWF Nature Club affiliated to AMAS The State Director was invited on 12th October to address the gathering of Nature Club Members of AMAS, Neyyattinkara. Around 15 Members were present in the gathering organized at 2pm in the AMAS Office. Sri. Rajendran, Director AMAS gave the welcome and introductory remarks. The State Director talked to the students on the increasing environmental issues that we have around us and the need for youth to stand up and respond to such issues through awareness and action oriented programmes. As an outcome of this meeting, it has been decided that AMAS and its Nature Club Members and other Volunteers will be incorporated into the VEP co-ordinated from the State Office.

2.2.3 Concept note on WWF as Facilitator for the Forests Clubs in Kerala Dr. B.S. Corrie, IFS, PCCF & HoFF in discussion with the State Director had suggested looking into WWF coming in as a Facilitator for the 1000 Forestry Clubs in the State under the Social Forestry Division of Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department. In this regard, the details on

11 functioning of the Forestry Clubs were collected by meeting the respective officers who handles the same. A brainstorming session was carried out in the office which came out with a concept note on the same and this was then again circulated to the State Directors and Education Officers in our network and their feedbacks and suggestions also incorporated. The final concept note was submitted to Dr. Corrie’s Office by the Senior Education Officer. We await their response.

2.2.4 Inauguration of Dharani Eco Club, KAU Campus, Mannuthy The College of Dairy Science and Technology, Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy Campus has initiated a new Eco Club in February 2017 with the name ‘Dharani’ and associated it with our NCI. The State Director was invited to kick start the ‘Invited Lectures Series’ under the initiative of the Eco Club. The State Director along with Mr. Thomas Perumittom and Mr. Murukan Pareparambil, two of our active Volunteers visited the campus and the college on 9th February and delivered a talk titled ‘Nature Conservation, Environment Protection, and People’s Participation’ and had a good session of active interaction with the participants.

2.3 Commemoration of Environmentally Important Days

2.3.1 Earth Day Earth Day was observed with three activities by the State Office. One was the digital promotion of Tree Conservation Campaign through Facebook. This year’s theme for Earth Day is ‘Trees for Earth’. Eight hoardings with attractive captions highlighting the need for ‘Planting and Protecting Trees’ was posted in the State Office FB page and was shared to all our volunteers and network members through our yahoo and google mailing groups also. Senior Education Officer and the Volunteers Team conducted a State-level Quiz Competition for High School Students at Kerala State Council for Science, Technology, and the Environment. The State Director delivered a talk on ‘Protection of Forests and Wildlife’ at the Pampa Parirakshana Samithi Summer Camp held at the PPS Office near on 21st April.

2.3.2 World Migratory Bird Day The World Migratory Bird Day 2016 was held at Changaram LP School on 9th and 10th May 2016 with a wide range of sessions with the support of Kerala State Biodiversity Board and in association with Birders Ezhupunna. The programme was inaugurated by Dr. K. Somasekharan Unnithan, District Coordinator of KSBB at Alappuzha. He released the Handbook on ‘Common Migratory Birds of Kerala’ also. The programme was attended by 40 people ranging from all age groups. The first technical session was on ‘Bird Migration’ led by Dr. Sujith V Gopalan of KSBB and an active volunteer of WWF-India. The second session was on “Common migratory birds found in Kerala” which was presented by Sri.G. Govind, volunteer from WWF-India and an active birder. In the post lunch session, there was a game to make them understand the role of birds in our life. The last session of the day was on “How to identify Birds” and was led by Smt. Neha Waikar, another WWF volunteer. On the second day, the participants gathered at the school by 6 in the morning and went to two birding sites

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of Changaram wetlands, and for birding. Experts led both the teams to interpret them with birds. More than 30 bird species were observed. Freshers of the team were so excited to see so many birds around them from different groups.

2.3.3 International Day for Biological Diversity Kerala State Office observed the International Day for Biological Diversity 2016 at Thodupuzha with the support of Social Forestry Division, Idukki in association with KSBB. 41 School Teachers participated in the Teachers Workshop organized with the objective of promoting ‘Volunteering for Nature Conservation and Environment Protection’. The programme was inaugurated by T.K. Sudhakaran , Vice-Chairman of Thodupuzha Municipality in a function that was chaired by Ms. Chinnu Janardhanan, Forest Range Officer, Thodupuzha. After the inaugural function, the participants were involved in an activity session to make hoardings with quotes as if trees speak for themselves on ‘Tree Planting and Protection’ and fixing them on the trees within the school campus. Sri. Renjan Mathew Varghese, shared the concept of volunteering and participatory approach in conservation action and awareness programmes and campaigns. In the afternoon session, they were made into groups of 4 each and they were asked to prepare a volunteer engagement programme based on the theme of their choice that they can easily carry out in their local area, be it around their houses or around their school. The groups took good time for discussion and presented the same for benefit of all.

2.3.4 World Environment Day WWF-India observed WED 2016 in the most efficient and effective manner with an array of awareness creation and action oriented events with the very active involvement of the public from various walks of life, which included:

1. On World Environment Day, Sunday 5th June, WWF in association with the Kerala Forests & Wildlife Department, Thiruvananthapuram Division conducted a ‘Rain Walk’ from Kallar to Ponmudi with 60 participants ranging between the age span of 10 to 60. The Rain Walk was inaugurated by Smt.T. Uma IFS, DFO (Thiruvananthapuram) and led by WWF officials and volunteers with the support of the Forest Department Protection Staff. Tips and tricks of ecosystem interpretation, bird watching, fun-filled moments with rain songs, clean up drive etc. were additional bonuses for the participants of the 13-kilometer-long walk along the forest path.

2. WWF and Academy for Mountaineering and Adventure Sports (AMAS) observed WED in Neyyattinkara Municipality. Sri. K. Ansalan, MLA inaugurated the programme in a function presided over by Smt. W.R.Heeba, Chairperson, Neyyattinkara Municipality. 500 Curry Leaf saplings were distributed free of cost to individual households in the Municipality with the aim of freeing our food from harmful chemicals.

3. WWF was also part of the State-level observation of WED organized by Dept. of Environment & Climate Change, Govt. of Kerala at Kanakakunnu Palace by putting up a poster exhibition on ‘Illegal wildlife trade’, the prime theme of WED 2016. This was done jointly with TRAFFIC-India, the wildlife trade monitoring network.

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4. On Monday, 6th June, the students of 6th to 12th classes of L’ecole Chempaka, were engaged in different awareness and action programmes. Around 120 students participated in the story writing competition on the theme ‘Stories as told by a Grandma Tree’ and poster making competition on the theme ‘Tree Planting and Protection’. An interactive session on ‘Zero Tolerance to Illegal Wildlife Trade’ was led by the State Director. Ten Asoka Tree saplings were planted in a area with the concept of raising an ‘Asoka Vanika’ and its nurturing was entrusted with the students themselves. Around 25 species of Thulsi were planted to develop a Thulsi Garden. The documentary ‘Home – Our Garden of Eden’ was also screened.

5. The State Office conducted a single day WED programme on 17th June 2016 at Maharajas College, which is one of the heritage colleges of Kerala. Interactive session on wildlife trade, ‘Closing the deadly gateway’ documentary screening, session on people’s participation in conservation and an interactive quiz also were done as part of the whole day programme.

6. As part of the observation of WED 2016, Taj Vivanta invited WWF-India to put up an exhibition of our conservation products and other brochures and pamphlets. Mr. Harish Kumar, Administrative Assitant and Mr. Jeffin John, WWF Volunteer put up the stall and manned it.

2.3.5 World Ocean Day Kerala State Office in association with Dept. of Aquatic Biology & Fisheries, and SN College, Kollam conducted an action cum awareness programme at and the College respectively. Around 30 volunteers from WWF, UoK and the College conducted a ‘Beach Watch and Clean-up drive’ from 7.30 to 9.30am at Kollam Beach. They observed lot of marine animals and collected 8 bagsful of waste. The awareness session was inaugurated by Dr. Appukkuttan Nair, Senior Scientist (retd), CMFRI, Kochi and presently associated with us as Consultant (Marine), WWF-India in the session that was chaired by Dr.B. Manoj, Principal of the College. Dr. Sirajudeen T.K., HoD of Zoology, TKMM College led the talk and interactive session on Marine Life.

2.3.6 International Tiger Day Kerala State Office observed the International Tiger Day 2016 at TKM College, Kollam in association with Social Forestry Extension Unit, Kollam and the College on 29th July 2016. The programme was inaugurated by Sri. Shahal Hassan Musalyar, Chairman of the College Trust. He also released a set of Tiger Conservation Posters with captions in . The session on ‘Vanishing stripes – issues and concerns of Tiger Conservation’ was led by Sri. Renjan Mathew Varghese, State Director, WWF-India. Following this, the documentary ‘India - Land of the Tiger’ was screened. A.K.Sivakumar, Senior Education Officer mastered an interactive quiz competition exclusively on Tigers. Around 120 students from various classes attended the programme and realized the fact that “our remaining few Tigers and their shrinking habitats needs to be protected at any cost”. The posters prepared by WWF-India in Hindi on addressing Human-Tiger Conflict was translated into Malayalam to be used for the observation of the International Tiger Day by the Western Ghats Landscape Team. All India

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Radio took an audio bite of the State Director on the Present Status and Issues of Tigers to be aired on the morning of International Tiger Day 2016.

2.3.7 International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer State Director and Senior Education Officer were invited by Kerala University College of Teacher Education, Kollam in connection with the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer 2016. State Director led an interactive session on ‘Ozone, Climate Change & You’ and Senior Education Officer led the session titled ‘Ecological Footprint and Sustainability’.

The State Director was invited as the Chief Guest for the Ozone Day Programme at SN College, organized on 30 Sept. The day’s programme was inaugurated and the talk on ‘Ozone, Climate Change & You’ delivered by the State Director in a function presided over by Dr. Jayadevan, Principal of SN College.

2.3.8 Wildlife Week 2016 Kerala State Office observed Wildlife Week 2016 at MM NSS College, on 5th October 2016. Sri.Shanavas A., Wildlife Warden of Shendurney WLS inaugurated the programme that was chaired by Dr.G.Girijadevi, Principal of the College. Session on ‘Wildlife - issues and concerns’ was led by Sri. Renjan Mathew Varghese, State Director and ‘Urban Wildlife’ by Sri. A.K.Sivakumar, Senior Education Officer. In the afternoon session, the documentary ‘Home - Our Garden of Eden’ was screened for the benefit of the participants to understand the wildlife around our homes itself.

2.3.9 Salim Ali Day Salim Ali Day 2016 was observed with technical and interactive sessions at NSS College, Nilamel on Friday 11th November, as the actual day 12th was holiday. The Dept. of Zoology partnered in the programme and 72 students from various classes participated in the sessions. The sessions on ‘Birding – why, how, when, who?’ and ‘e-birding’ were led by the Senior Education Officer and the ‘Common Birds of Kerala’ was led by Mr. Govind G., Co- ordinator of Volunteer Engagement Programme. Out of the participants, 22 students have taken to the field of Ornithology in the very same week as a result of the programme. During the last session of the day’s programme, an orientation on the Volunteer Engagement Programme of WWF-India was given and everyone was given the necessary instructions to sign-in as a Volunteer with WWF-India. The monthly Sunday Bird Walk was rescheduled as Salim Ali Day Bird Walk on 12th Saturday in Kattilappara forests of Shendurney WLS. It was a joint programme of WWF-India and Kerala Forests & Wildlife Department in which 19 birders participated. The entire team was divided into four teams and all the teams had wonderful birding from 7.00am to 11.30am. The birding observed 96 species of birds including 7 endemic and 15 migratory species.

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2.3.10 World Wetlands Day 2017 Being part of Volunteer Engagement Programme (VEP), Kerala State Office organized the World Wetlands Day 2017 with an awareness component followed by an action component. A multimedia presentation on wetlands and its importance was arranged on 1st Feb for the group of student volunteers from Thumpamon North HSS and general public at Ulanad Samaskarika Samithy, Pathanamthitta. Objective of the awareness component was to convince them the need of protecting Polachira, a very productive wetland in their vicinity. The programme was attended by 50 participants including the students.

On the next day morning, i.e. on the actual World Wetlands Day, the participants assembled near the wetland around 7am. Their mission was to eradicate the Mikania plants spread along the banks of the wetland and few Salvinia, another invasive plant from the wetland by uprooting them. It was a really wonderful volunteer programme with clear productive outcome. The WWD poster and resource material titled Jala Bank (Water Bank) was released by Sri.C.P.Sunil, Secretary of the Panchayat. Many Grama Panchayat Members, NSS Programme Officer, Officials from WWF-India and the members of Ulanad Samaskarika Samithy participated in the event.

The State Director was invited as the Chief Guest to deliver the Lead Talk in the World Wetlands Day Programme organized by Department of Zoology, NSS College, Nilamel on 14th February. The talk was titled ‘Our Wetland Ecosystems under threat’.

2.3.11 World Sparrow Day WWF-India, Kerala State Office conducted the third yearly Sparrow Survey in Thiruvananthapuram in connection with World Sparrow Day 2017. Our volunteers and staff covered 15 sites this time and found a slight decline in the total population of the small bird and a population shift from city to coastal belt. The total number fell to 398 from the previous year’s 411. The findings were shared with the media and they covered it very well, alerting public on the loss of our urban biodiversity.

2.3.12 Earth Hour 2017 The Capital City Thiruvananthapuram also joined in with many impactful activities extending along the full day from 6.30am to night 9.30am. Earth Hour in Thiruvananthapuram is led by WWF in partnership with Dept. of Environment and Climate Change, Energy Management Centre, NIMS, KSEB Limited, DTPC Thiruvananthapuram, Indus Cycling Embassy and Club FM. The Earth Hour day’s activities kicked off with the Cyclothon organized from Manaveeyam Veedhi under the initiative of Indus Cycling Embassy. Around 60 cyclists, mainly youngsters, took part in the cycle rally starting from Manaveeyam Veedhi and covering - Kawdiar and back. The parallel activity was the Walkathon organized for the early morning walkers in the Museum & Zoo Compound. In support of Earth Hour, the walkers, around 300 plus including senior students, middle aged, youngsters and children, put on the “I Support Earth Hour” pledge sticker on their t-shirts. They were also engaged in interactive games on the theme of “Do’s and Don’ts on Energy Conservation and Sustainable Lifestyles”. Around 30 students had the opportunity to take part in the Painting, Poster Design and Story Writing

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Competition organized as part of Earth Hour on the theme of ‘Switch Off + Switch to Renewable Energy’ at the Museum Auditorium. Justice P. Sathasivam, Hon’ble Governor of Kerala has requested all people of Kerala to observe Earth Hour and has offered his full support to the Earth Hour campaign led globally by WWF with the Switch Off in Kerala Raj Bhavan. In the evening, main function at Shanghumugham Beach, the participants were enticed with very soft instrumental music by the team ‘Fusion Music’ conducted by Mr. Kunjumon Thomas and team. The Switch Off and Candle Light Vigil was led by dignitaries including Ms. Padma Mahanti IFS, Director, Dept. of Environment and Climate Change, Govt. of Kerala, Sri. Dhareshan Unnithan, Director, Energy Management Centre, Govt. of Kerala, Dr. C. Bhaskaran, Member, WWF-India State Advisory Board, Sri T.V. Prasanth, Secretary, Thiruvananthapuram DTPC and many others. A large crowd joined in the candle light vigil, mainly City residents who had come to the beach to enjoy the evening time.

2.4 Friday Forum Friday Forum, the regular monthly open forum for students to discuss environment related issues – the first session of the Forum in the academic year 2016-2017 was held on 8th July 2016 at Museum Auditorium, Thiruvananthapuram. Dr. S. Sudevan from Indian Meteorological Department, Thiruvananthapuram led the session on Monsoons of Kerala & Water Conservation. Around 89 students from 3 schools attended the program. The next Friday Forum was on 5th August 2016 at Museum Auditorium, Thiruvananthapuram. Sri. Baiju, Program Officer, Centre for Environment and Development, Thiruvananthapuram led the session on “Solid Waste Management”. 120 students from 4 schools attended the program. Friday Forum of Oct was held in an open venue, within the Zoo Campus, Thiruvananthapuram with the theme ‘Wildlife Conservation’. Around 75 students and teachers from 5 institutions participated and Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, Dy. Director of Wildlife Education from Kerala Forests & Wildlife Department led the session.

Friday Forum in the month of November was held at Museum Auditorium, the usual venue on the theme ‘Energy Conservation’. Around 120 students and teachers from 3 institutions participated and Sri. S.V. Subhash Babu, Energy Technologist from EMC Kerala led the session. Since 14th December is being observed as Energy Conservation Day, the session was a preamble for the students to communicate and conceive the energy conservation measures. Friday Forum of Dec was held at Govt. HSS Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram, a special venue with the theme ‘Ecological Footprint’. Around 80 students and teachers from 2 institutions participated and Sri. Renjan Mathew Varghese, State Director led the session. The theme was very relevant as the summer starts in the State and everybody was looking into the upcoming scenario of high consumption rate of water and electricity which are in high deficit.

Friday Forum of January was held on the theme ‘Wetlands - Threats and Concerns’ on 20th January 2017. Around 60 students and teachers from 2 institutions participated and Sri. A. K. Sivakumar, Senior Education Officer led the session. The theme was very relevant as the World Wetlands Day was to be observed on 2nd February, just 12 days after. It was an eye opener with regard to upcoming World Wetland Day 2017 and to do the possible to observe the day in their respective institutions.

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2.5 Sunday Bird Walk Sunday Bird Walk in the month of July was held on 17th July at Kallar Forests. Sixteen bird enthusiasts attended the programme and observed 42 species of birds including Indian , Pompadour Pigeon, Fairy Blue bird, Crested Tree etc.

2.6 Nature Education Camps

2.6.1 Field Study Trip to Periyar Tiger Reserve for Students from TERI University WWF facilitated the Nature Education Camp for eight students of the Masters Programme in Environment Science of TERI University at Periyar Tiger Reserve from 15 – 18 December 2016. The State Director took the leadership in the arrangements and organizing of the camp assisted by Mr. Murukan Pareparambil and Mr. Thomas Perumittom. On the first day of arrival, the opening session was taken by Shri. Joseph Karoor, Deputy Director (Wildlife Education), Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department. The second day was mainly for Biodiversity Studies, mainly Capture – Re Capture using Camera Trapping led by Periyar Foundation Conservation Biologist Dr. Shameer and Telemetry Studies led by Mr. Boominathan, Co-ordinator, WGNL Programme, WWF-India. The second day was mainly for People’s Study which included visit to a Tribal Settlement and interaction with Tribals on NTFP Collection, Livelihood options and their issues, visit to Gavi to understand the Ecotourism aspects of the area and sessions by Mr. Jikku, Periyar Foundation Economist and Mr. Shyam, Ecotourism Officer. The last day had boating and visit to the Interpretation Centre and the camp concluded with the feedback session.

2.6.2 Reframing Nature Camp curriculum in Silent Valley National Park As per the request of the Wildlife Warden to have a review of their present mode of conducting Nature Education Camps, Senior Education Officer visited Silent Valley NP from 21st to 23rd December. Initially, he gave an orientation session for the Forest Dept. Officials involved in organizing camps followed by hands-on training in a two days camp. He demonstrated how Camps can be a platform of dialogue between the participants and nature to ensure an attitudinal change in the participants which will make them Green Warriors of Planet Earth resulting in conservation initiatives directly and indirectly. The curriculum frame work of the camps also was discussed with the Wildlife Warden and her team.

2.7 Classes and Lectures Delivered

2.7.1 Talk at P.N. Panicker Foundation The Foundation is carrying out a six months eco training programme with the participation of around 20. The programme is sponsored by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. The State Director was invited on 16th April 2016 to deliver a special talk on the topic of ‘Empowerment through Environment Protection’.

2.7.2 Talk at Satellite Symposium on Climate Change & Aquatic Ecosystems Dept. of Aquatic Biology & Fisheries and Dept. of Environmental Studies of University of Kerala had jointly organized a Satellite Symposium titled ‘Climate Change and Aquatic Ecosystems’

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on 23 Sept 2016. The State Director was specially invited as a Resource Person and the talk was delivered on the title ‘Addressing Climate Change – From global to local’ with special emphasis on the contributing and impacted sectors of climate change in the context of Kerala and India and how we can mitigate and adapt to it. The talk was well appreciated.

2.7.3 Orientation Session for NSS Volunteers at MG College The State Director was invited to the Orientation Session for the NSS Volunteers of MG College, Paruthipara, Thiruvananthapuram on 21st February. The talk was on ‘Ecological Footprint and Sustainable Development’. Around 100 NSS Volunteers from different department and their two NSS Co-ordinators and Principal attended the event.

2.7.4 Class in Refresher Course in Environmental Science The State Director was invited as a Resource Person for the Refresher Course in Environmental Science organized by the UGC Human Resource Development Centre, University of Kerala to handle two sessions in the forenoon on 6th February on ‘Ecological Footprint and Sustainable Development’ and ‘Human – Animal Conflicts’.

2.7.5 Session on Birdwatching at Pattambi College The Senior Education Officer was invited to provide a session on “Birdwatching and documentation” at Govt. College, Pattambi. The session was held on 2nd March, 2017 in the forenoon session at the College and around 80 students of the Nature Club attended.

2.7.6 Orientation for Teacher Trainees at NSS Training College, Changanassery A single day orientation session was conducted in the college on 18th January on the theme “Wetlands”. Sessions on ‘Environment Education’ and ‘Wetlands - issues and concerns’ were led by A. K. Sivakumar, Senior Education Officer and Mr. Govind, Coordinator of Volunteer Engagement Programme during the forenoon session. In the afternoon session, the participants were divided into 6 groups and they were asked to make two songs and a story on different types of wetlands. They did the action component very well and enjoyed the programme with information, thinking and fun. The activity revealed the cultural value of each type of wetland. They were also assigned to conduct awareness sessions in nearby schools in connection with the upcoming World Wetlands Day 2017.

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3 Networking

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3.1 Brainstorming and Orientation on Volunteer Engagement Programme On 9th Nov, the newly inducted Co-ordinator of VEP and the other staff of KLSO was led into a brainstorming and orientation session on the Volunteer Engagement Programme by the State Director to explain and explore the immense possibilities of VEP in our ongoing projects, programmes and activities, networking with others and also coming up with innovative new initiatives taking forward the strength of the Volunteer Network across the State.

3.2 Volunteer Engagement Programme Launch Though many programmes are going on under the VEP, the official launch programme was held on 21st January 2017 at Museum Auditorium along with the conclusion meeting of Asian Water Bird Census 2017 at Thiruvananthapuram. All the three AWCs were coordinated under the VEP. Kerala State Office launched the programme by honoring our senior volunteers namely, Sri.K.Sivaprasad, O.M. Mathew, Jaichand Johnson and Smt.Neha Waikar. All these volunteers have a close relationship with WWF-India since long time. They “were and are” very active in our Earth Hour Campaign, Sparrow Survey, CFL distribution, Asian Waterbird Census, Kerala Bird Atlas, Save Tree Campaign, Thiruvananthapuram Bird Atlas and so on. Sri.K.Gangadharan, Director, Dept. of Museums & Zoos was the chief guest. He handed over the Memento, Volunteer Certificate, and the volunteer badge to the participants. All the four friends shared their year’s long experience with the other volunteers who were part of the AWC. They thanked WWF-India for providing them a platform to do their part for Mother Nature.

3.3 Liaison work for Climate Change and Energy Programme Since the study on ‘Kerala Going 100% RE by 2050’ and exclusively for District have been completed and the reports released in two earlier functions organized at Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram, with the present change in Government in Kerala, to look at how the outcomes and recommendations of the report can be implemented in Kerala with the involvement of the stakeholders like KSEBL, EMC, ANERT and others, it is proposed to have a Round Table Meeting with the participation of all stakeholders in Thiruvananthapuram. The meeting will conclude with the presentation of the ‘Ten Point Action Agenda’ to the Minister for Power and taking his feedback on the same. The necessary liaison work in this regard with WISE, State Government and Minister’s Office is being carried out.

3.4 Volunteer Engagement Program Activities

3.4.1 Tree Conservation Campaign in Thiruvananthapuram Following the Earth Day theme, ‘Trees for Earth’, the volunteers and staff carried out a Tree Conservation Campaign within the Museum & Zoo Compound on 28th and 29th April. The hoardings with the captions highlighting the need for planting and protecting trees, printed, and mounted on cardboard, were tied to the trees standing within the M&Z Compound with the aim of sensitizing the visitors. Museum & Zoo Compound is a place where thousands of people from all walks of life come in for morning and evening walks. Since school summer vacation is going on, there are lots of visitors also from across the State.

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On 3rd June 31 Student Participants of the Summer Vacation Camp joined us in this campaign and they also contributed in the effort to erect 25 hoardings. Totally 52 hoardings have been erected on trees within the M&Z Compound.

3.4.2 Tree Conservation Campaign in Guruvayur Following the Earth Day theme ‘Trees for the Earth’, the Volunteers from conducted a Tree Planting and Protection Campaign in and around Guruvayur - the famous Temple Town on 25th May 2016. The tree conservation slogans were printed and mounted on cardboard and tied to the trees to catch public attention and thereby sensitise them.

3.4.3 Energy Conservation Campaign In the Teacher’s Workshop held at Thodupuzha about the observation of IBD in May- one of the major discussion was on resolving the peak load power consumption issue in Kerala. In this regard, a campaign is to be launched through door to door visits using a sticker with the simple message to “Switch Off Your Fridge for 2 hours between 6 – 10pm”. In this background, the sticker was designed and 300 nos were printed and sent to Thodupuzha for the participants of the Teachers Workshop to carry out the campaign as part of their volunteering.

3.4.4 Energy Conservation Rallies Being the follow up of Urja Kiran 2016, the Energy Conservation Awareness Campaign, EMC- Kerala and CED requested us to organize 3 rallies on 14th December, the National Energy Conservation Day. As part of this, Kerala State Office conducted two rallies on Energy conservation on 14th at and Thrithala of in which each was participated by 180 students from different institutions.

3.4.5 Campaign on Urban Biodiversity As part of VEP, a campaign on the necessity of conserving our Urban Biodiversity and protecting their habitats was carried out from 23rd to 25th February 2017 at the most potential venue, the National Biodiversity Congress (NBC) organized by Kerala State Biodiversity Board. 15 volunteers from ELPF, a youth club based nature club based at and 30 volunteers from the Nature Club of NSS College, Nilamel took the lead as participants. They conducted the campaign by wearing masks of different yurban species along with placards describing the necessity of conserving them. They were distributing stickers of various types of urban biodiversity and their habitats also. It was a wonderful activity during the NBC as most of the personalities, institutions and NGOs working in the field of biodiversity conservation were present in the venue on these days.

3.4.6 Forests & Water Campaign As part of VEP, Kerala State Office conducted an activity based sensitization on the theme “Forests & Water” through a workshop and rally on 21st and 22nd March 2017, commemorating World Forestry Day, and World Water Day at Peet Memorial Training College, Mavelikara. The workshop was inaugurated by Smt. Haritha Babu, Member of Panchayat. An orientation on the importance of forests and water was

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given on 21st March to the 40 Teacher Trainees of the College by Sri. Renjan Mathew Varghese and A.K. Sivakumar. Smt. Haritha released the poster on “Water Conservation and Forests of Kerala”. After the morning session, the participants were asked to prepare all required collaterals for conducting a public rally on the next day, 22nd March. They made around 50 placards and posters which were very attractive and carried messages to sensitize the public. On 22nd, Dr. Gibby George, Principal of the College flagged off the rally at 9.30am from the College. The rally passed through major junctions and bus stops covering around 3 kms. It was well appreciated by public and all the Teachers of the College.

3.5 KSERC Workshop on Promoting Space Technology based Tools and Applications towards Governance and Development The Workshop was organized at Hotel Hycinth on 8th Nov 2016 and the State Director attended representing WWF-India and took active participation in the discussions and deliberations.

3.6 Nomination for River Weeks Award 2016 Pampa Parirakshana Samithi has been nominated by the State Director for the River Weeks Award 2016. The nomination form with all the necessary details filled-in have been submitted to Mr. Suresh Babu for due consideration.

3.7 Discussion on possible association with JCI Mr. Sreenath of Junior Chamber International has come forward and had a discussion with us on how WWF and JCI can partner with each other and associate in various projects and programmes. The options are fully open and we will be communicating with each other in future and taking this connection forward.

3.8 Report release function of India’s Development Co-operation On invitation, the State Director and Mr. Thomas Mathew Perumittom, Volunteer attended the release function of the report titled ‘India’s Development Co-operation’ authored by Mr John Samuel and Prof. Abraham George of the Institute of Sustainable Development and Governance based in Thiruvananthapuram organized at the Convention Centre of the Mascot Hotel on 28 September and actively took part in the discussions and deliberations.

3.9 ISRS Thiruvananthapuram Chapter Meeting and GIS Day Talk As part of reviving the Chapter, the Thiruvananthapuram ISRS Chapter Meeting was called on 21 Nov 2016 at IIST. This was followed by the GIS Day Talk delivered by Dr. Dhadhwal, Director, IIST with main emphasis on the Bhuvan Portal and its various capabilities. The State Director being a Life Member of ISRS was invited to the meeting. The State Director has been nominated as a Member of the ISRS Thiruvananthapuram Chapter Committee.

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4 Publication

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4.1 Bi-monthly newsletter Mruthika The three issues of the Kerala State Office bimonthly newsletter Mruthika i.e. March – April 2016, May – June 2016, July – August 2016 was drafted, finalized, and printed.

4.2 Write-up on the escalating Stray-dog issue in Kerala One of the greatest environmental issues plaguing Kerala now is that of Stray dogs. The number of stray dogs roaming the streets have increased and of late they have started showing ganging up and aggressive behaviour. There have been many instances of stray dog attacks on people and poultry in the last many days. Conservation is losing its face among the people because of such issues. The major reason behind this escalating issue is lack of proper solid waste collection, management, and disposal. In this regard, a detailed write-up was prepared and shared with The New Indian Express to be published for the information and better understanding of the issue by the public.

4.3 Article on Integrated Water Resource Management An article titled ‘Integrated Water Resource Management’ has been prepared and translated into Malayalam and shared with Pampa Parirakshana Samithi based on their special request to be included in the Souvenir that they are planning to release as part of the celebration of completing 10 years.

4.4 Article on Tigers An article titled ‘Increasing Tiger Numbers is a matter of great pride for Kerala’ has been prepared and translated into Malayalam and shared with Forestry Information Bureau (FIB) of Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department to be included in their official magazine Aranyam.

4.5 Article on Water and Power Crisis The State Director prepared the article and shared it with The New Indian Express through Ms. Athira.

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5 Internships

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WWF-India gets a lot of applicants, mainly college students, for doing their internship. In most of the cases it is Organisational Training, where the student has to get attached to an organisation/ NGO get involved in their work and understand the structure and functioning of the organisation. In some cases, the internships are technical, whereby, the students are expected to work in their own subject area. We regularly get interns from Stella Maris College, Chennai, National University of Juridical Sciences, , Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune, Mar Gregorios College of Law, National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi and many such. In 2016-17, two MSW students Varun Ramesan and Richu Baby from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai applied for internship. Since their area of interest was social work, they were attached to the Western Ghats Nilgiris Landscape Programme along with Mr. Tiju Thomas to carry forward the work among the tribal communities, mainly in connection with the Community Forest Rights Act.

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6 Policy and Advocacy Level Interventions

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6.1 Proposed Athirappally Hydro Electric Project In discussion with Dr Sejal, Ms. Vishaish and Mr. Tiju, a position paper is being drafted on our stand on the controversial proposed Athirappilly HEP. A set of campaign posters have also been prepared on why the Government should reconsider the proposed project.

6.2 Response on the proposal to introduce 15,000 more autorickshaws within Thiruvananthapuram City There is a recent move from the District Administration under the leadership of the District Collector Dr. Biju Prabhakar to give 15,000 more City permits for autorickshaws. The State Director had prepared an appeal against this move sighting clearly reasons with regard to traffic congestion, increase in air pollution, loss of urban green spaces etc.

6.3 HELP Foundation’s initiatives towards Paravur Lake & Ithikkara River Discussion with Prof. Peter Pradeep, HELP Foundation on how the River Watch work on Paravur Lake and Ithikkara River carried out under the Small Grants Programme of WWF-India can be scaled up and sustained on the long run on a participatory mode involving schools, colleges, LSGIs etc.

6.4 Smart City Proposal for Thiruvananthapuram Corporation An internal discussion and brainstorming session was conducted within the office to come out with creative comments and suggestions as response towards Thiruvananthapuram Corporations invitation towards giving inputs for the Smart City Proposal of the Corporation. The points were tabled, discussed, and compiled into a WWF Note and submitted to the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Authorities.

6.5 Workshop on Ecotourism in Protected Areas The APCCF (ED & TW) Ms. Prakriti Srivastava had called for a meeting to discuss on the very important topic on ‘Ecotourism in Protected Areas’. Most of the experts in Kerala working on forests, wildlife, biodiversity etc. and experts from the ecotourism sector were present in the meeting. WWF was also specially invited to the meeting. As part of the preparations, the inputs from the Secretariat were taken and Ms. Vishaish Uppal contributed proactively towards the same. The various inputs were compiled into a WWF Note on Ecotourism in Kerala and submitted in writing to the APCCF. The State Director also actively took part in the day’s discussions and deliberations.

6.6 Workshop on Shailesh Nayak Committee Report on CRZ The State Director was invited to the meeting organized by MCiTRA at Hotel Nalanda, Kozhikode on 29th October. The keynote speaker of the programme was Dr.K.V.Thomas, Former Senior Scientist, NCESS, Thiruvananthapuram and presently Adjunct Faculty, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, Kochi. The State Director had taken the necessary inputs from Mr. Vinod Malayilethu, Senior Co-ordinator, Marine Programme on this subject and took part actively in the discussions and deliberations.

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6.7 Kerala Going 100% Renewable Energy by 2050 With the proposal from WWF-India Secretariat to take this forward with a Stakeholder Discussion Meeting on how the recommendations of the study report can be rolled out with the involvement of the various stakeholders in the State, the State Director has been doing the necessary liaison work with the Chief Minister’s Office and the Office of the Minister for Power. Post report launch and stakeholder consultation, another Round Table was planned in Kerala to highlight the findings of the report and take it forward especially that the new Government has taken over in Kerala. Necessary discussions are through between the State Director and Dr. Panwar and Ms. Jincy Joy of Climate Change and Energy Division to meticulously plan and materialize this at the earliest.

6.8 LPR 2016 and Multimedia Presentation The Living Planet Report 2016 has come out. Ecological Footprint is a concept that is being popularized the maximum here through our education, awareness, and outreach programmes. In this regard, the State Director has compiled a new multimedia presentation based on the facts and figures in LPR 2016 to be used in our upcoming environment education programmes.

6.9 Eco-restoration of To prepare a project proposal on Eco-restoration of Vellayani Lake, the State Director visited Vellayani Lake and surrounding areas on 1st & 2nd Dec and had interaction with the local stakeholders, especially Fishermen Co-operative Society representatives and Scientists of Kerala Agricultural University, Vellayani. All the information, comments and suggestions were compiled and initial discussions carried out with Dept. of Environment and Climate Change, Govt. of Kerala.

6.10 Meeting on the India High Range Mountain Landscape Project for The Local Self Government Department organized the Experts Consultation Meeting with regard to the IHRMLP for Idukki District on 20th December at IMG, Thiruvananthapuram and WWF was invited to the meeting. The State Director and Mr. Tiju Thomas, Program Officer, Community Engagement Programme, WGNL Programme, WWF-India attended the meeting and participated in the discussions and deliberations.

6.11 WWF Work on Human Elephant Conflicts Dr. Rajashekaran, Chief (Agriculture), Kerala State Planning Board had contacted the State Director to inquire on the details of WWF’s work on Mitigating Human-Elephant Conflicts. This has been conveyed to the Programme Director who has requested Mr. Boominathan and his team to come up with a WWF Paper with details on our work to mitigate Human – Elephant Conflicts. They were planning to include this issue in a major way in the next Plan Programme of the State Government. In this regard, Mr. Boominathan, Mr. Harsh and Mr. Yash took the lead in preparing the paper which was then finalized by Dr. Dipankar Ghose and Dr. Sejal Worah. The final paper has been submitted to the State Planning Board for consideration.

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7 Proposals Prepared and Submitted

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7.1 Proposals to Department of Environment and Climate Change, Govt. of Kerala The State Director has prepared two project proposals i.e. ‘Kerala Coastal Walk’ and ‘Kerala’s Top 10 Rivers at Risk’ and submitted it under the Climate Change Programme and Environmental Research Programme of DoECC for consideration and financial support.

7.2 Proposal to KSCSTE We have prepared a project proposal titled ‘Study of the Little of Lake: Change in Population Dynamics and its impact on the Livelihood of Fishermen Community’. The State Director met Dr. Kamalakshan Kokkal, Joint Director and submitted the copies of the project proposal to be duly considered for financial support.

7.3 Proposal to NIMS and Fisheries Department A proposal has been prepared on “Improvement and Capacity Building of Fisheries Schools in Kerala – an ESD Approach” and this will be submitted to NIMS for financial support as part of their CSR and the Fisheries Dept. will be roped in for necessary technical support.

7.4 Project Proposal for National Environment Awareness Campaign (NEAC 2016) Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change through Centre for Environment and Development as the State Nodal Agency has invited project proposals under NEAC 2016. We have prepared and submitted a project proposal titled ‘Handling Household Hazardous Waste’ to be implemented in three wards in Thiruvananthapuram.

7.5 World Rivers Day 2016 World Rivers Day falls in the last week of September. A programme proposal has been prepared to observe World Rivers Day 2016 in Neyyattinkara, Thiruvananthapuram with the components of compiling songs on the theme of rivers and coming out with a handbook, awareness programme on river protection and river walk. The proposal has been submitted to the District Collector for possible financial support from the District Administration through the District River Management Funds.

7.6 Review of WWF Projects and Publications for replicable ones in Kerala The State Director has thoroughly reviewed the previous project reports of WWF-India after downloading the same from WWF-India website. This has been done to look at the possibility of taking up similar studies, whose approach and methodologies have already been tested and proven, in Kerala with local specific modifications.

7.7 Note on possibility of association in WWF-India Projects & Programmes As we are gearing up for promoting the sale of WWF-India Conservation Products in the next 3-4 months, for wider engagement with businesses, industries, corporates and others in addition to purchase of our products, two separate notes have been prepared by the State Director with the inputs from other colleagues on new and upcoming projects and programmes and possible association and joint ventures. These documents can be shared

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7.8 Discussion with GeoVin Solutions on new joint project proposal to DoECC Now that we have successfully completed the project on Laterite Mining and its Environmental Impacts in Kerala, the Dept. of Environment and Climate Change has requested us to look into the possibility of carrying out a similar but more comprehensive study on Stone Quarries in Kerala and also come up with the Development of a Comprehensive Quarry Information Services – Kerala which will help in the easy processing of applications for opening up new quarries and also looking at expansion of area of activities of existing quarries. The necessary discussion in this regard were carried out with Mr. Vinod P.G. of GeoVin Solutions Pvt. Ltd who were our Geoinformation Technology partners in our Laterite Mining project also. The State Director is now preparing the detailed project proposal with technical and financial details to be submitted at the earliest to DoECC. Proposal on Development of Comprehensive & Dynamic Quarry Information Service for Kerala (CDQIS-K_ submitted and prepared to Dept. of Environment and Climate Change on their request.

7.9 Meeting with Toonz Animation The State Director and Mr. Thomas Perumattom met with Mr. Avaneesh and had detailed discussion on how WWF-India and Toonz Animation can work together. The script of the Marine Turtle Documentary was shared with Mr. Avaneesh. He was very enthusiastic about the prospect of Toonz and WWF-India working together.

7.10 Proposal for Water Conservation Campaign This year, Kerala really reeled under the intense summer heat. Water scarcity was a direct impact. With the upcoming monsoon in June, flash floods were the imminent outcome. In this regard, it was decided to carry out a Water Conservation Campaign in May with house to house visit targeting Residents Associations using a poster titled “Ten Commandments on Water Conservation”. It was proposed to be jointly carried out with the Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU) under the Water Resources Department and the proposal was submitted to Dr. Subash Chandra Bose, Director, CCDU.

7.11 Proposal on Marine Turtle Conservation As part of the ongoing project on ‘Marine Turtle Conservation along the Kerala Coast’ funded by Johnson Lifts, Chennai, a proposal for matching funds was prepared to be submitted to the Forests & Wildlife Department specifically for the establishment of 3 Marine Turtle Interpretation Centres in Chavakkad, Kolavipalam and Nileswaram. The State Director met the PCCF & HoFF Dr. Corrie and submitted the same.

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8 Sales & Fundraising

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8.1 Sales

8.1.1 Promotion of sales of WWF-India Conservation Products Maximum effort is being taken to promote sales of WWF-India Conservation Products. Wherever possible, face to face meetings and discussions have been arranged to promote the products. The Catalogue have been widely distributed through soft copy through our personal contacts, yahoo and google mailing groups etc.

With regard to pushing sales of our conservation products, a brainstorming session was conducted within the office with the involvement and inputs from all to look at servicing of existing customers, look at how we can rope in next customers, improvement of our product range, etc. Mr. Thomas Mathew Perumittom will work with us as a Volunteer on commission basis to ensure that we have better reach across Kerala this year and will be able to achieve or go beyond the sales target. The request for samples and stock transfer have already been placed.

The 2016-17 Conservation Products Catalogue ‘Together Possible’ working files were taken and the layout and design modified into a two pager 3 folded catalogue. 200 copies of the same were printed on 100GSM paper and along with covering letter sent out to our vast network in Kerala to promote sales.

Necessary personal and phone follow-ups are also being carried out. Maximum efforts have been taken to service existing customers with regard to timely delivery of products. Last minute efforts were taken to reach out to new prospective customers. But due to demonetization, change in Government in Kerala and other factors, sales have been very low this year.

8.2 Fundraising

8.2.1 Approaching major corporates for fund raising under their CSR mandate The major corporates and business groups in Kerala like Air Travel Enterprises, Asset Homes, Infosys, KIMS, Ooppoottil, KITEX, Kosamattam etc. are being approached for possible fund raising for our projects, programmes and activities under their CSR mandate. Sales of Conservation Products are also looked into with priority. The CSR Policy of these companies are being downloaded from their website, studied thoroughly and relevant ideas in connection with our mission shared to fit their requirement. Mr. Thomas Perumittom, a BCom Graduate has been voluntarily working with us on developing write-ups and brochures of possible joint programmes between WWF and Corporates through our projects for conservation of species and habitat, environment education, awareness, and outreach programmes and policy and advocacy level interventions. Thomas has prepared a list of high profile corporates based in Kerala who fit into the CSR profile and has been sending out mails with relevant attachments of brochures and flyers and based on their response have been going out and meeting them in person. Discussions are in the pipeline and that too at different stages and we hope that fruitful association will materialize in the new FY to come. A two-

35 pager publication on the proposed projects, programmes and publications that can be carried out by WWF with the support of corporates have been prepared and printed to be given to corporates to leverage their CSR funding.

8.2.2 WWF Corporate Presentation As we are approaching more and more corporates for fund raising under the CSR mandate, the State Director made a revised WWF Corporate Presentation with just 10 slides mainly highlighting the work in Kerala under the State Office and also under the various other Programmes. A color printout of the presentation has also been taken and filed in a Slide Holder to be used when multimedia facilities are not available.

8.2.3 Discussion with Director, Ecotourism The full details of the possible projects and education awareness programmes in association with the Ecotourism Directorate was shared with Mr. Manoj, Ecotourism Officer to be shared and discussed with Mr. George Thomas, IFS, Director, Ecotourism.

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9 Participation in Exhibitions

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9.1 WWF Stall at GHSS Manacaud, Thiruvananthapuram As part of the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations of Manacaud GHSS, they organized a Science based Exhibition titled Inspire 2016 in the school campus from 21 – 23 October 2016. WWF was also specially invited to put up our exhibition stall. The various exhibition panels and conservation products were arranged in the two stalls allotted to us and the same was manned by Mr. Harish Kumar, Administrative Assistant and Mr. Sujith, Volunteer.

9.2 WWF Stall at St. Mary’s College, Thrissur On 10th Dec 2016, a WWF Exhibition was arranged at St. Mary’s College, Thrissur as part of the Second Kerala Social Work Student’s Congress organized by Kerala Association of Professional Social Workers. Mr. Harish Kumar, Administrative Assistant and Tiju Thomas, Programme Officer, Community Engagement, WGNL Programme Office put up the stall, manned it and interacted with the students. A new set of panels including the Community Engagement Work under Community Forest Rights Act in Athirappilly – Vazhchal Area under the WGNL Programme and MSC Certification of Short Neck Yellow Clam of Ashtamudi Estuary under the Marine Programme was drafted, layout created and printed.

9.3 WWF Stall in the KSC 2017 Expo at Mar Thoma College, Thiruvalla WWF-India put up our exhibition stall as part of the 5-day exhibition at Mar Thoma College, Thiruvalla in connection with Kerala Science Congress organized at the College by Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment from 26th to 30th Jan 2017. Mr. Harish Kumar, Administrative Assistant and Mr.Govind G., Coordinator of Volunteer Engagement Programme put up the stall, manned it and interacted with the students. WWF Conservation Products was put up to promote sale. WWF Publications were distributed to the participants looking at their genuine interest. The stall won the Second Prize in the category of NGOs as it was well done, highly informative and interactive.

9.4 WWF Stall in the NBC 2017 Expo WWF-India put up our exhibition stall as part of the 5-day exhibition at Tagore Theatre, Thiruvananthapuram in connection with National Biodiversity Congress organized by Kerala State Biodiversity Board from 22nd to 26th February 2017 at Tagore Theatre, Thiruvananthapuram. All the office staff were actively engaged in putting up the stall, manning it and interacting with the visitors. The exhibition panels made as part of the ongoing Marine Turtle Conservation Project were displayed along with other panels on Marine and Coastal Ecosystem. WWF Conservation Products were also put up to promote sale. WWF Publications were given to genuinely interested participants.

9.5 WWF Stall at University College, Thiruvananthapuram Kerala State Office put up our exhibition stall as part of the 5-day exhibition at University College, Thiruvananthapuram in connection with the Sesquicentennial (1866-2016) from 22nd to 25th March 2017 at the College campus. Mr. Harish Kumar, Administrative Assistant took the lead in putting up the exhibition stall with the support of other volunteers.

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10 Other Activities

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10.1 Paper on Recommendations to Kerala Fisheries – The Way Forward After the new Government has taken over, KSMTF and NFF jointly organized a half-day workshop with the Fisheries Minister on Kerala Fisheries – The Way Forward. Since the State Director and Mr. Vinod, Senior Co-ordinator, Marine Programme, WWF-India was out of station and could not attend the meeting in person, a paper on WWF’s recommendation on Kerala Fisheries was prepared and sent to the organisers. The paper was well appreciated and it has been translated into Malayalam to be published in the next issue of Alakal – the fortnightly newsletter of KSMTF.

10.2 Paper presentation in the NABS National Conference at Madurai Kamaraj University The State Director attended the two days NABS National Conference on New Biological Researches: Opportunities and Challenges for Sustainable Development (Agriculture, Biology, Energy, Environment, Health and Climate Change) and presented the paper titled “Kerala Going 100% Renewable Energy by 2050”.

10.3 Paper presentation in SASA National Conference The State Academy for Statistical Administration organized the ‘National Seminar on Equitable Distribution of Socio-Economic Resources for Local Level Planning – Role and Responsibility of Department of Economics and Statistics’ on 13 & 14 December 2016 at IMG, Thiruvananthapuram. The State Director was specially invited to present a Lead Paper in the Seminar titled ‘Development of Sustainable Livelihood Security Index for the largest wetland of the Western Ghats - Vembanad of Kerala’

10.4 Paper for the National Conference on Environment and Pollution The State Director was specially invited for a paper presentation in the National Conference on Environment and Pollution to be organized in March at National College, Bengaluru. In this regard, the abstract of the paper titled ‘Pollution threatening Vembanad Lake, its biodiversity and livelihoods’ have been prepared and sent to the organisers. This paper is an outcome of our completed project on Development of Sustainable Livelihood Security Index for the Ramsar Site (Vembanad) of Kerala carried out for Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Kerala.

10.5 Paper for the National Conference on Frontiers in Eco-Biological Sciences and its Applications 2017 The State Director had been specially invited for a paper presentation in FESA 2017 to be organized in March by School of Life Sciences, Periyar University, Salem. In this regard, the abstract of the paper titled ‘Laterite Mining and its Environmental Impacts in Kerala’ has been submitted to the organizers. This paper is an outcome of our completed project on Landuse/ Landform alterations due to Laterite Mining in Kerala and its Environmental Impacts in Kerala – a GIS Approach carried out for Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Kerala.

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10.6 Discussion Meeting on Bird Flu in the State With reference to the invitation from the Forest Range Officer, Thattekkad who is in charge of Bird Flu Monitoring Cell of Kerala Forests & Wildlife Department, Senior Education Officer and Mr.C.Harikumar, one of our active Volunteer and a Bird Expert attended the discussion meeting on Bird Flu and Migratory Birds held on 9th November 2016 at Thattekkadu WLS. Both of them presented their suggestions to monitor the migratory birds and the methods to prevent further outbreak of Bird Flu in the State. They also tabled the WWF Note on the same prepared by WWF-India, Kerala State Office with the contribution from the State Director, Senior Education Officer and volunteers’ active in the field.

10.7 Humane Education Programme in Schools in Kerala The Kerala State Office have been asked to take this up by CPREEC, Chennai. Initial discussions have been carried out internally between the State Director and the Senior Education Officer and it has been decided to conduct the related programmes covering schools under one or two selected School Managements in Kerala. The Senior Education officer has been entrusted the responsibility to initiate discussions with School Managements and see who would be interested.

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