A Conservation Education & Community Service Camp was organized by Maria’s
Public School, Guwahati at The Maria’s Braveheart Camp, Gelpur (Rajasthan)
from 15 th to 19 th Oct 2019. Eight students along with a teacher escort Aishwarya
Bharadwaj attended the camp. Following were the student participants:
1. Sanvi – VII – 8669 – Laxmibai
2. Aanya Bittu Nellissery – VII – 8721 – Sarojini
3. Aadhya – VII – 8957 – Sarojini
4. Palak Agrawal – VII – 8999 – Sarojini
5. Sanskriti Dalmia – VII – 9227 – Sarojini
6. Saanvi Shahi – VII – 9153 – Kasturba
7. Gracy Jindal – VII – 8946 – Laxmibai
8. Pari Agarwala – VII – 9169 – Savitri
The camp also included wildlife safari at the Ranthambore National Park, Sawai
Madhopur. Total six schools including the host school, participated in the camp.
First day the teams were divided into Barazza groups, which were named after
birds like Robin, Warbler etc. The students were supposed to do all activities as per
Barazza groups. Later some ice breaking activities like No Men are Foreign and
the Marshmallow challenge were done among the groups. After this students were
made to watch the visible changes on Earth due to Climate Change. Some of the
disturbing changes were the presence of large amount of plastics in the stomach of
Albatross leading to their extinction and the crack in the Larsen C Ice Shelf in
Antarctica.
There was a mesmerizing Satria dance performance by a student from the host
school. Satria (pronounced as ‘Hatria’) is a mix of all folk dances of Assam.
On the second day all the students were taken for bird watch. There they were
taught how a bird census is done. For that they were given ETX-10, a GPS device
which gives altitude, latitude and longitude of a place. Students saw birds like
Ashy Prinia, Lineated Barbet, Black Drongo, Paddy field Pipit, Mourning Dove

and many more. Later in the day they were taken to Rajkiya Vidyalaya, Gelpur for
some community service. Here each barazza group was given a topic like Water
conservation, Save the girl child, Unity in Diversity and they had to paint the
message on the walls. In the evening each barazza group had to create an
Environment Protection and Conservation Mascot.
The next day all the teams left for Sawai Madhopur which is around 280 km from
The Maria’s Braveheart camp. In the evening, Self cooking was done in the Zone 8
of the Ranthambore National Park. Here Each group was given a flint, which is
used to produce an igniting spark with steel. Students made their chicken tikka and
paneer tikka for Dinner. Later they relished the local Dal Baati.
On the fourth day they went to a private school in Sawai Madhopur village. Here
the students had community interaction with students from that school. The main
motto behind such interaction was to make students aware about the problems that
village people face, as this is the area where tiger comes at night quite often. Later
all the Barazza groups did Nature Journaling. The school students made some
posters. After Lunch, students were taken to an area where they saw real pug
marks and were taught pug mark casting. Here they were shown how tiger census
is done using special cameras that are fitted in the trees to take picture of wild
animals. For outing students were taken to a handicraft workshop, Dhonk. In the
evening each Barazza group performed a skit based on their interaction with
village school students.
The last day of the camp was the wildlife safari at the Ranthambore National Park.
We left the hotel early in the morning so we could get the sight of a tiger. There
were beautiful lakes and the Ranthambore Fort inside the National Park. Nilgai,
Chital, The Great Indian Bustard and Wild boar were a common sight. After lunch
all the teams left for Gelpur. At night there was certificate distribution followed by
a dance party.