Kaveri river field project (teaser)
A river is more than just a body of flowing water. It is a lifeline. Rivers have made and marred histories, sustained and destroyed civilizations, and altered geographies in myriad ways.
In India, there is a very long tradition of worshiping rivers, of celebrating them in song, poetry, and dance, in folk and classical forms, in folklore, myths, and legends. Now, that tradition is largely in name only. The rituals and rites that connected life to rivers are now more mechanical.
We worship the rivers, but we also callously abuse them in every way we can; mainly we pollute them beyond their ability to cleanse themselves. The rivers continue to be holy but are highly polluted. They may wash our sins away, but not our filth.
Yet, the river is at times romantic, holy, nurturing; but at other times, it can be devastating.
When rivers, respecting no human boundaries, flow across boundaries, we have the seeds of potential conflict.
Teaching children about rivers in geography class is confined to the physical geography of rivers and building the vocabulary associated with it … meander, delta, and so on.
Rarely do we go beyond and connect rivers (or any other geographic entity for that matter) with anything else in life.
Another approach
Seven students (grades 7, 8, and 9) from the Army Public School (APS), Bangalore, have undertaken a two-part project to look at the Kaveri river that originates in Karnataka and flows through Tamil Nadu, joining the Bay of Bengal. One of the distributaries, still going by the name of Kaveri, joins the Bay of Bengal in the ancient Tamil town of Poompuhar. (Here’s a map of the places for this project)
For this project, students identified themes that they are particularly interested in — geography, agriculture, cultures and traditions, economy, politics, and architecture.
To obtain information about these, they drafted questions for which they would like to seek answers. They gathered primary information from visual observation, discussions, and interviews with various people at the locations we visited. They documented the trip using photography, videography, and taking notes.
Here is a teaser… Some of the geographic concepts we explored: tophophilia, geopiety, meander, tributary, inter-state competition for water, damming, irrigation, agriculture, site (especially defensive site and dry point site), vertical (or altitudinal) zonation of climates, tourism, pilgrimage, …
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From 2–4 November, our group visited Talakaveri, Bhagamandala, Mysore, and Srirangapattana. Soon, we will visit Mekedaatu and reconnect with Kaveri close to Bangalore.
Later, most likely in January 2013, the same group will pick up the study again in Tamil Nadu, visiting Sri Rangam, Thanjavur, and Poompuhar.
At some point in the Tamil Nadu segment of the trip, a group of students from a school in Chennai and possibly also from Aanaikkovil will join us.
After returning from the trip, the APS team will make a half-day presentation to their school mates and to an open forum to be organized jointly by The Indian Institute of Geographical Studies (TIIGS) and APS at the GeoVidyaa Geography Centre of Excellence on the campus of APS.
That presentation will consist of their primary and secondary research about the river from Talakaveri to Poompuhar. The presentation will be by the students made for their peers.
And anyone with a curious mind.
The team:
- Students: Akhilesh, Akruthi, Akshat ,Dakshi, Devanshi, Diya, and Rahul
- Geography teachers from APS: Ms Chandrakala, Ms Meera
- Geographer from TIIGS: Dr Chandra Shekhar Balachandran
Here are some pictures from the trip.
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TIIGS is preparing a study project for anyone interested in this kind of study. Small groups will be organized for these and will cover important points along the river from origin to end.
