Building a community of nature educators in Bengaluru Premium

According to nature educator and ecologist Vena Kapoor who founded and heads Nature Classrooms, an initiative to link everyday learning and education to the natural world, this idea of an informal meet-up was seeded from a casual conversation during a team meeting. “My colleagues and I were discussing how many people reach out to us, saying that they are also interested in nature education and asking if they could meet us,” she says. This casual conversation led to them thinking that it would be “nice for people from the nature education space to catch up occasionally, just to discuss each other’s work, see if we want to share resources, figure out what is happening in this space and help each other.”

A game of spring bingo is underway at Cubbon Park on a pleasant Sunday morning. The players fan across the park’s lush lawns and thickets of trees, dodging other Sunday regulars (walkers, joggers, readers, skaters, dogs, lovers ambling hand-in-hand) as they attempt to identify specific things in the park: new leaves, flowering trees, spiderlings, edible leaves and birdsong. Once they cross out most of the items on their respective bingo cards, they sit in a circle under a large tree, ready to share insights and meet other like-minded people.

Now in its 10th edition, this monthly event is a nature educators’ meet-up, an informal convening of people in or interested in the nature learning space. These meets, an initiative of the Nature Conservation Foundation’s Nature Classrooms, is a space “where people can feel free to come, share their work, collaborate, network and give nature education a voice,” says Priyanka Prakash, a project manager at Nature Classrooms.

According to nature educator and ecologist Vena Kapoor who founded and heads Nature Classrooms, an initiative to link everyday learning and education to the natural world, this idea of an informal meet-up was seeded from a casual conversation during a team meeting. “My colleagues and I were discussing how many people reach out to us, saying that they are also interested in nature education and asking if they could meet us,” she says. This casual conversation led to them thinking that it would be “nice for people from the nature education space to catch up occasionally, just to discuss each other’s work, see if we want to share resources, figure out what is happening in this space and help each other.”

In April last year, a call was put out on the Nature Classrooms Instagram page announcing an in-person meeting for nature educators in Bengaluru.

The turnout at the first meetup, which was held on April 21, at Cubbon Park, was impressive, which surprised them, recalls Veena. “Some people who came were just curious and wanted to know what other people were doing. Or there were people who were planning to get into nature education and wanted to meet people who were already doing nature education,” she says. What also became evident was that people were just happy to see the number of other people working in this space, she believes. “It made them feel less alone.”

During this meetup, many participants also told the organisers that they wanted a more consistent engagement, so this first informal meeting became the first of a series of regular events at Cubbon Park. “We decided that we will all meet on the last Sunday of every month and stick to that so automatically people will be able to add it to their diaries,” says Vena. Since then, this informal meetup has occurred every month, except for one month, during the Deepavali break.

A spirit of camaraderie is visible among the group under the large tree at Cubbon Park, with green grapes and cookies being passed around and plenty of side talk. Manini Bansal, a visual communication designer and animal-lover, who is facilitating this session, then takes over, beginning by talking about her own journey.“I am someone who grew up just enjoying nature and loving being outdoors…constantly looking for creatures…bringing random animals into the house,” she confesses, with a laugh, recalling how her grandmother used to call her Mowgli.