Small steps in any field bring huge changes. When the question comes to combat pollution, to protect wildlife or to conserve an ecologically important area it is always essential to involve the local people to integrate those small steps together. We regularly organize awareness campaigns to make the issues clear to the mass to make a stronger extended team. We perform these sessions in regular intervals to make people aware regarding the importance of these species in the ecosystem and hope to succeed by motivating the local people to conserve the diversity.

We have conducted several awareness campaigns covering various aspects like Species Conservation, Waste Management, Health and Hygiene, Use of Plastic etc.

Solid Waste Management (SWM) is one among the basic essential services provided by municipal authorities in the country to keep urban centres clean. However, all solid waste is deposited at a dump yard within or outside the city, without segregation and in a wasteful manner.

The journey to good waste management starts from the minds of young children who can learn, adapt towards changes quickly and actively participate to execute their parts to overcome the problems we all face. Howrah Municipal Corporation, therefore wanted to incorporate and involve students to think about the current issues, be reactive, analyse and execute their bests at their levels. It is important that they are made aware and to do so the message of a cleaner environment and a better future should be put forward in a simple and effective way. More importantly development of a sense of belongingness is necessary as well as a sense of ownership of their own actions. A very essential side of awareness is creating the sense of a 'Good Life and Wellbeing '. There was always an immense need to change the mentality towards negotiation with waste, by acknowledging it as an environmental adversity.

To provide awareness to the students the Howrah Municipal Corporation took the initiative of “Green Volunteer Group” under Mission “Green & Clean Howrah”. Nature Mates-Nature Club (NMNC), were assigned to execute the plan of involving the students of 18 schools in this mass movement. We sportingly started executing the work of creating these volunteer groups in the different Schools, envisaged as the pioneer body which will be given the responsibilities to segregate wastes in their households, in their schools, supervise the process of segregation and most importantly making others aware regarding the purpose of the entire process. Different activities were conducted in various schools for triggering and sensitizing the students with various current issues related to this subject and with an intention to change the present pattern of household and other waste disposal. NMNC played the role of a catalyst to select a group of interested students, to form a “Green Volunteer Group” from all schools. We have encouraged them to incorporate their own ideas to address the issue in their house, school and their neighbourhood.

In India the need for spreading environmental awareness is huge. Millions of rupees were spent every year for the same. But most of it is used to aware people, who are already aware enough!! The need to invest lies in the immediate vicinity of the forests and protected areas, in the forest fringe villages, where the problem of conflict, scope of miss use and poaching and chance of saving wildlife actually lies.
We from Nature Mates had started a program called “Tuktuk” in the name one of one of our brightest member who died at the age of six from forest malaria. “Tuktuk” a common term for gentle knocking, in Bengali is designed to enlighten the children of the forest fringe villages about the importance of Mother Nature. It’s a program which does not end in one visit or by gifting the students with books or uniforms. It will be a gentle but continious knocking for the students to make them aware, to prepare them to fight for a better environment.
Schools were selected in Darjeeling area, Doars Area, in Purulia and in Sundarbans in the initial stage.

In Sundarbans we have already created “Sabuj Dal” under this scheme.

Arpan was a dear friend of Nature Mates. He was one of the finest soul we had around us, pure and inquisitive, bubbling with joy after knowing each and every small new things. He left us during September 2017. It was a pure shock for all of us. In memory of Arpan, we have decided to start our plantation program post Amphan. Now onwards we will do a lot of plantation across India, on every possible occasion. All the plants, as they are, will offer (Meaning of Arpan in Bengali is offering) variety of service to the entire spectrum of biodiversity, including ants, one of Arpan’s favourite!! Arpan will live among all the plants we plant, forever.

We have already planted 1000 plus saplings at Pathar Pratima Village and will be planting around 7500 fruit trees in total in various villages of Indian Sundarbans.