In 2015, Snow Leopard Conservancy-India Trust with funding from Education is a Right, Italy, conducted a series of workshops in Rangdum, Zanskar to create awareness and sensitize the students about environmental conservation. A varietyof talks and activities were organized. Before the workshops, the students had very little knowledge about the biodiversity of Ladakh and had almost no knowledge onthe high altitude ecosystem functioning. This all changed after the workshops, as the students gained knowledge on the importance of biodiversity for a healthy society. They also learned about the different ecosystems of India and Ladakh. The games and activities helped them understand different environmental issues inZanskar and Ladakh.
They learned about the types of plants in and around their school and village. Additionally, they learned about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores found in Ladakh. They also understood the importance of each and every species in the ecosystem functioning. In the end, the students also learned about the garbage problem in Ladakh. They understood the difference between biodegradable and non-biodegradable substances that humans generate on a daily basis.
These workshops resulted in the students thinking more consciously about conserving and protecting the environment, which in turn will help in saving the fragile ecosystem of Zanskar. At the end of the series of workshops, the teachers and students asked for more such workshops in future. Therefore, we continued our program in the hostel in Leh in winter.
People in Ladakh know little about the region’s wildlife, their population densities, distributions and conservation status. Therefore, an urgent need was felt by the Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust (SLC-IT) for a comprehensive conservation awareness campaign. Thus, the organization started the Snow Leopard
Conservation Education Program (SLCEP). Under this program, SLC-IT in collaboration with Kalpavriksh developed the Ri Gyancha, a biodiversity resource kit for Ladakh. To disseminate the information in this kit, SLC-IT conducts workshops for various stakeholders such as school children, village youth, school teachers and adults. In 2014, SLC-IT also started conducting workshops for students of Rangdum School, an important stakeholder in nature conservation in Zanskar. Continuing this, in 2015, we conducted a series of workshops in the same school.
Zanskar has several unique and endangered wild animals including the snowleopard. There are also numerous medicinal and aromatic plants some of which remain neglected whereas as some are over-exploited. This results in lack of knowledge and awareness among the local community regarding the importance of wild flora and fauna. For example, most people do not understand the important role that the snow leopard plays in keeping the ecology in balance. Therefore, SLCIT has recognized the importance of educating school students in ecology, and then let them create conservation awareness among the people of Zanskar. This is especially so when Rangdum is so sparsely populated yet ecologically fragile. But for this, first they need to be educated and trained about wildlife conservation and other environmental issues.
The main objective of the program was to familiarize the students of Rangdum School about Zanskar’s biodiversity, and ways to conserve it for the betterment of people and wildlife in the region.

Workshops 2015
The workshops were conducted at the Government Middle School, Rangdum.
Students were from all three parts of Rangdum valley: Tashi Stongze, Zuldo and Shakar.
Tashi Stongze is the closest village, situated at about 4 kms from the school. The village has a total 20 households and almost every other family has 1-2 children attending the school.
Zuldo is situated at around 6 km from the school and the village has 25 households. This village also has the largest number of students attending the school.
Shakar is situated at about 12 km from the school and is the farthest and remotest among all the villages in Rangdum. This village has only 4-5 households and the least number of students attending the school.

Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust Team
Mr. K C Namgyal, Field Manager, SLC-IT, Zanskar
Mr. Skalzang Chosphel, Field Assistant, SLC-IT, Zanskar

Participants
Around 34 students participated in each of the four workshops.