The Climate Champions are Here

A veiw from asara mattam of the Manalapatti Valley

Time and again I end up divulging a lot on the climate issues. Perhaps it is destined that I write about it invariably. Venu (D.Venugopal) said he is going to pull all stops to highlight the recent devastations & landslides that happened in Nilgiris which he attributes to climate change in Nilgiris, Nilgiri Documentation Center (NDC) that venu founded, firstly did a tribal music concert (Music of the Mountains) in Coimbatore, Now the NDC is priming up to put the Nilgiris on the International Climate Change Map, NDC in association with the British Council is organising the second International Climate Champions Programme (ICCP) in the Nilgiris from January 24 to 30, 2010 The ICCP will consists of 30 young champions chosen across 14 countries 4 candidates have been included from the Nilgiri District. The ICCP will be based in Coonoor (Salivation Army) for 7 days & will be moving around various parts of Nilgiris observing impact of climate change on the people, land, forest, fauna, flora and general ecology of the Nilgiris; thereby interpreting the observations in the context of the respective countries of the participants; and seek to draw common lessons for managing such impact in the future.

They would also try to understand the mitigation measures being taken, their effectiveness and the role of NGOs in the fight against climate change impacts. At the end of the camp, they would develop and administer a learning framework to reinforce the experience to their own contexts and individual learning.

Apart from the observation and interpretations the ICCP will gain mileage in various media & give much needed exposure to the general public about the critical importance of the climate change at the local level, for the same there will be few lounges opened at the Salivation Army Conference facility exhibiting climate features, an art gallery, a Kota pottery sessions, sale of native produces and a photo gallery commemorating 25 years of Save Nilgiris Campaign (SNC).