OSAI

Donation to Anti-poaching Watchers of Avalanche, Nilgiris, and Sirumugai

The Anti-Poaching Watchers (APW) of Tamilnadu Forest Department are the first-line defenders of our invaluable and irreplaceable forests and wildlife. They not only have to battle the well-armed forest bandits, but also have to brave inclement weather, put down forest fires, face infuriated animals etc. However, they are just temporary employees being paid a pittance (around Rs. 5000 p.m) and have no other welfare benefits.

As a small gesture to these brave hearts, we, a group of Osai members from CBay Systems, Coimbatore, decided to donate needy things to them in memory of our beloved colleague, Sharavanan Krishnan who was an avid nature lover. Last year, we provided sleeping bags to the 16 APWs of Mukurthi National Park.

This year, two APW groups were chosen. The first was the 26 APWs from Sirumugai Range, who were given quality footwear as per their request. This was done in the presence of Sirumugai Ranger, Mr. Dinesh Kumar. From Osai, Kalidasan, Ganesh, Ganapathy Senthil Kumar, Sundarakumar, Subash Chander, and Srinivasa Rao Udupi were present.

The second group of ten APWs and Eco Watchers of Avalanche, Nilgiris, were given raincoats in the presence of Mr. Anurag Mishra, DFO, Nilgiris South. Avalanche being one of the wettest regions in Nilgiris for most of the year, they were very much in need raincoats. From Osai, Kalidasan, Ganesh, Ganapathy Senthil, and Prabhagaran were present.

The contributions were from Sangeetha, Senthil Kumar, Srinivasa Rao Udupi, and Subash Chander. Special thanks to Sangeetha who never misses an opportunity to help even after shifting to Bangalore.