Study Tour

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LAURIE I'm sitting here in the Ecodorm in the Pitchandikulim Bio Resource Centre. (PBRC). It's a bit cooler today only about 30C. It was such a lurch from winter in the mountains to the pre monsoon heat of India. We've been here about a week and it's been exhausting. Just starting to have energy again. There's a lovely view from our room into the Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest. Pitchandikulim is an environment education centre which focusses on reafforesting in the local area with this local indigenous forest. But they are doing so much more as we've discovered. They are also helping a group of local villages to develop sustainably. They have built an environment education centre and toilets at the local high school and a number of women's centres. They have helped replant a community forest and lots of trees around the village. They have also put up solar panels and other alternative technologies. They run programs at the school, support women's groups, do computer, health and sexuality and tailoring training for kids and adults. So what they are trying to do is build a model of balanced, sustainable rural development. It's very impressive.

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