A chat with Geetha Iyer, well-known consultant on science and environment education, leads one to view spiders and other insects with a tolerant eye
What would you do if you saw spider’s webs around your house? The majority would go into a frenzy of cleaning. But not Geetha Iyer.
This science teacher of many years and well-known consultant on science and environment education thinks of spider webs as the first line of defence against household insects.
Geetha is also a passionate advocate of raising awareness about neighbourhood biodiversity. “It means,” she says, “look out of your window and observe.” “Observe” is another favourite word with this sprightly lady. The cornerstone of our biology lessons is observation, she points out. “But looking at a formalin-bleached cockroach or frog in a jar is not observation. Observation is something that will evoke a previous memory, raise a question in the mind, or evoke a sense of awe. It is the beginning of learning,” she says with great feeling. “And there is nothing like neighbourhood biodiversity to promote observation.”
There’s that term again. By now, I begin to understand what she means. So far biodiversity conjured up visions of soaring mountains, dense forests, and animals like tigers, lions, elephants and pandas.
But Geetha is talking about something much simpler. She’s talking about flies, spiders, lizards, butterflies, moths; about crows, mynahs, pigeons and sparrows.
“I’ve lived in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Jaipur, Chennai…. And everywhere there are trees. Where there are trees, there will be birds even if it’s only a crow or a mynah. Did you know there are different kinds of mynahs?
“People see a black bird and immediately say ‘Oh! Crow!’ But if they ‘observe’, they might see the red eyes and greyish-green beak of the male Asian koel.”
She brings up the issue of spiders and lizards and how many people run screaming from these harmless animals. Lizards feed on insects and mosquitoes, she says, and are not dangerous unless they fall into your food.
“This business of lizards licking food is a fallacy,” she says scornfully. “Most likely it was there because of an insect on your food.” She agrees that one really can’t have spider webs in one’s living rooms but “in the backyard or on balcony corners is okay. One kind preys on cockroaches but is rarely seen.” Spiders definitely have my vote then, I think.
Speaking of spider webs and pigeon droppings, something she says sticks in my mind. “A super-sanitised environment is not good for one’s immune system. Biodiversity is also closely linked with well-being and health. By not allowing biodiversity to flourish around you, you are denying space for those that could well check the population of dengue/malarial mosquitoes.”
Even if children are asked to write about biodiversity or environment, it’s usually downloaded from the Internet, rarely about first-hand experience. She narrates an incident from one school. The Std. V NCERT textbook had a lesson on laws to protect wildlife and instructs teachers to discuss the implications with students. The teacher asked if the decision to make snake catching a punishable offence was correct. One girl’s answer was: Catching snakes and exhibiting them is for livelihood, so give them other ways of making a living before you make this a punishable offence. Otherwise they will be forced to beg or left without any way to live a decent life. “And do you know what the teacher said?” Seeing her expression, I could guess. “This is a wrong answer. Go check the textbook and write what it says.”
She reflects on her days as biology teacher and how she used to look for opportunities to take children out of the classroom. “At Apeejay School, NOIDA, the Yamuna was across the road. In winter, there would be many migratory birds. I used to take the children bird watching. Today, there’s a four-lane expressway. No way can you cross the road now.” What if the school is in the middle of a concrete jungle? “Use potted plants. There will be grasshoppers or flies.”
She has quite a bit to say about flies. “In the insect world, the fourth largest group is flies. Not all are the kind you want to swat. Many are beautiful. They are pollinators and pest controllers. For us, fly means carrier of disease. But if you watch a fly carefully, you’ll see it cleans itself more often than we do. A fly tastes its food with its feet, so it has to land on different stuff. Humans throw garbage in the open, defecate in open spaces and then complain about the fly carrying disease.”
In an attempt to create more awareness, she has curated the content for the Biodiversity module of Wipro’s Earthian programme for schools. Geetha shows me the pamphlet of commonly seen fauna, which helps one spot the difference between a chameleon and a garden lizard, or a grasshopper, a mantis and a Katydid. There’s a card game and a booklet with activities to facilitate observation and personal experience of biodiversity. The material for schools is available for download athttp://www.wipro.org/
earthian/school.php#HTP
As we wind up our chat, Geetha says, “We don’t need any new curriculum. If schools can engage with forest departments, they can actually use the forest to study the regular curriculum and fulfil the classroom requirements. Even parks and gardens can be used for biodiversity studies, if natural areas of wilderness are not accessible. And environment education won’t be the namesake project it is today.”
Biodiversity is also closely linked with well-being and health..
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