The Green Brigade Initiative of EARTH BRIGADE FOUNDATION is all about repaying our debt to Mother Nature, by assisting in conservation efforts and wildlife protection in India.
Our work under this initiative focuses on:
- Bringing direct benefits to wildlife conservation in India, such as improvement to habitat, food and providing water for wildlife.
- Harmonious resolution of man-animal conflicts.
- Fulfilling needs of communities living in remote areas around forests, whose wellbeing will positively affect the health of the natural landscape around them.
- Moving the Courts when necessary, to ensure protection for wildlife and habitats.
Project Aquarius is our flagship project under this initiative, under which Earth Brigade Foundation provides drinking water for wildlife in India’s arid forest areas. Project Aquarius has donated and installed solar-operated water pumps for providing drinking water to wildlife in the arid forests of Bandipur in Karnataka, Kanha National Park & Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh, and the Brahmapuri Divisional Forest in Maharashtra. Earth Brigade Foundation has also donated solar lamps, umbrellas, monthly rations, etc. to forest-dependent communities.
Our mission
- Habitat Improvement
- Drinking Water For WIldlife With Solar Pumpsets
- Resolution Of Man-Animal Conflicts
- Welfare Of Forest-Dwelling Communities & Frontline Forest Guards
Our vision
Earth Brigade Foundation’s wildlife conservation campaign, The Green Brigade, aims to aid wildlife conservation efforts in India and help tribal communities in preserving the natural resources of the areas they live in.
PROJECT AQUARIUS
Indian forests witness torrid conditions in summer, and for our wildlife, this is a do-or-die season. The greatest challenge of the day is finding water to drink. Natural water bodies in forests are drying up at an alarming rate, and acute water scarcity results in weakness or death of wild animals, and forces them to stray into human habitation. Straying animals get killed, or get into a man-animal conflict situation, where they can damage crops and homes, or can cause human injury and death. This is where Project Aquarius steps in!
Under Project Aquarius, Earth Brigade Foundation donates & installs solar-operated pumps to draw groundwater from bore-wells, and replenish existing waterholes, both natural and artificial. These waterholes provide a reliable source of water to wildlife, even in the driest months – this goes a long way in ensuring that animals do not need to wander long distances away from forests to seek water, and helps immensely in avoiding man-animal conflict.
Solar pumps are non-polluting, trouble-free and low-maintenance systems, and have been tested earlier in wildlife areas. They operate from sunrise to sunset, discharging drinking water into designated waterholes, ensuring that wildlife can have access to drinking water within their own preferred habitats.
We also explore techniques to promote rainwater harvesting in forests, by creation and deepening of ponds, etc.
PROJECT AQUARIUS LOCATIONS
PROJECT JAL
Project Jal is a new initiative, launched in 2021 by Earth Brigade Foundation, envisaged to provide reliable gravity-based water purifiers to frontline forest staff to ensure availability of clean drinking water to them through the year.
Forest guards are the frontline warriors in protecting our wildlife and natural heritage. Their tough duty conditions entails staying in remote Proection Huts/ Anti-Poaching Camps (APCs) and ‘chowkies’, with minimal infrastructure.
One of the biggest challenges they face is the availability of safe drinking water. Many of their outposts do not have electricity, and their only source of water is often from forest springs or streams. This water is often turbid or contaminated, and forest guards become very vulnerable to water borne infections like hepatitis, gastro-enteritis and dysentery. These infections can seriously impact the health of our frontline forest warriors and prevent them from effectively discharging their duties. This can also impact our threatened wildlife, leaving it more vulnerable to poaching, etc.
Through Project Jal, Earth Brigade Foundation has provided 276 water filters to various forest departments in India till date. In addition to providing the water purifier machines, Earth Brigade Foundation also provides for five purification cartridges with each machine, so that the purifier can be used safely for two years. Earth Brigade Foundation’s target is to complete 1000 such installations by the end of year 2022.
|
Location |
Number of machines |
| Uttarakhand | 116 |
| Chhatisgarh | 88 |
| Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve, Rajasthan | 42 |
| Sunderbans Tiger Reserve, West Bengal | 30 |
| Total | 276 |
SOLAR LAMP DISTRIBUTION
Solar-lamps were donated by Earth Brigade Foundation to several tribal hamlets in Aarey forest, Goregaon, Mumbai after a three-year old boy was mauled in a leopard attack. These lamps will ensure the safety of tribals who step outdoors for their ablutions, and for children who leave for school at dawn.
DISTRIBUTION OF ESSENTIALS
Umbrellas, raincoats, solar lamps, clothes and daily provisions are being provided on regular basis to a Baiga tribal village on the outskirts of Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh – this community is largely forest-dependent.
DISTRIBUTION OF ESSENTIALS
Umbrellas, raincoats, solar lamps, clothes and daily provisions are being provided on regular basis to a Baiga tribal village on the outskirts of Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh – this community is largely forest-dependent.
DISTRIBUTION OF ESSENTIALS TO FOREST STAFF
Earth Brigade Foundation provided uniforms, shoes, tents and other accessories for forest patrolling staff in Kolamarka Conservation Reserve, Maharashtra, which protects a population of the endangered Asiatic Wild Buffalo.
RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM
With support from wildlife enthusiast Sharad Vats of Nature Safari India and Mrs. Tulika Kedia of Singinawa Jungle Lodge, Earth Brigade Foundation sponsored the installation of a rainwater harvesting system for a school in Awarghani Village, Madhya Pradesh, which shares its boundary with the Pench Tiger Reserve. Naturalist Varun Mani was the project coordinator who worked to complete this project with personal attention and immense dedication.
With the new system in place, the rainwater collecting on the roof of the school is now channelled and filtered through pipes to recharge the dry borewell. This will hopefully result in an annual saving of 50,000 to 70,000 litres of drinking water for the village.
RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM
With support from wildlife enthusiast Sharad Vats of Nature Safari India and Mrs. Tulika Kedia of Singinawa Jungle Lodge, Earth Brigade Foundation sponsored the installation of a rainwater harvesting system for a school in Awarghani Village, Madhya Pradesh, which shares its boundary with the Pench Tiger Reserve. Naturalist Varun Mani was the project coordinator who worked to complete this project with personal attention and immense dedication.
With the new system in place, the rainwater collecting on the roof of the school is now channelled and filtered through pipes to recharge the dry borewell. This will hopefully result in an annual saving of 50,000 to 70,000 litres of drinking water for the village.
WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION IN MUMBAI
Earth Brigade Foundation organized a fund-raising exhibition of wildlife photographic prints at the prestigious Jehangir Art Gallery in May 2018. 75 photographers from all over the country donated their best images, which Earth Brigade Foundation produced and displayed at this world-renowned gallery. This exhibition helped raise more than Ten Lakh rupees (Rs. 10,00,000), which were used towards solar pump installations under Project Aquarius.
DISTRIBUTION OF OXYGEN CONCENTRATORS
Earth Brigade Foundation provided 25 Oxygen Concentrator machines to Tiger Reserves in 7 States, namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. These were sent to dispensaries managed by the Forest departments for emergency supportive treatment during the second wave of the Covid Pandemic in India in March-June 2021. This addressed the need to help neglected communities living around forests, as most of the relief efforts were focused on urban areas.
DISTRIBUTION OF OXYGEN CONCENTRATORS
Earth Brigade Foundation provided 25 Oxygen Concentrator machines to Tiger Reserves in 7 States, namely Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. These were sent to dispensaries managed by the Forest departments for emergency supportive treatment during the second wave of the Covid Pandemic in India in March-June 2021. This addressed the need to help neglected communities living around forests, as most of the relief efforts were focused on urban areas.
OUR CONTRIBUTIONS
support initiatives
-Provisions to Corbett drivers during the first wave and lockdown.
-Solar lamp distribution to forested communities in Aarey, Baiga villages, Kanha.
-Blankets/ Raincoats to Baiga village, Kanha.
-Helping school children awareness campaign in Jorhat , Assam through Firoz Hussain.
-Year’s supply of midday meal for Bhoorsingh school children, Mukki, Kanha.
-Rainwater harvesting system installed at a school near Pench Tiger Reserve.
-Planting of indigenous saplings in Sunderbans villages.
Direct Benefits To Wildlife
Forest Staff Community Welfare
Health Checkup Camps
Public Interest Litigations
LEGAL INITIATIVES
EBF filed PILs in the Bombay High Court and in the Supreme Court to prevent the shoot order for Tigress T1 of Pandharkawada in Yavatmal, Maharashtra, in 2018.
- EBF has filed a PIL in Bombay High Court to penalize those responsible for the unlawful killing of Tigress T1 (Avni) of Pandharkawada, Yavatmal, Maharashtra, and the matter is sub judice
- EBF has moved a PIL in the Bombay High Court in 2019 to stay the controversial Metro Car Shed Project proposed in the ecologically fragile Aarey forest in Mumbai, and to declare the area as a Conservation Reserve. The matter is due for hearing.
