Melghat being under privileged and suffering from various socio-economic problems, education can play a vital role in addressing and solving most of the problems. Only few students can make it to the higher education. Ours is the only multi stream institute in the region of Melghat. We feel it is our responsibility to create awareness about higher education among the tribal and other backward people here. This may be our contribution towards national education policy.
We try to meet all eligible students and dropout ones through visiting almost all the junior colleges in Melghat and nearby areas. We meet not only the students and teachers but also their parents. We try to tap their needs so that we may offer them a specific programme. We arrange a gathering of eligible students with their friends, relatives and family members and address them. We come to know the various problems pertaining with them like poverty, lack of proper mind set, superstitions, lack of awareness, their inevitable involvement in earning daily bread and butter. We use manuals, brochures, audio visual aids. In our talks with students, wide publicity is given to various programmes, activities in our college through cable networks, social media, banners, posters, personal letters, etc. Our alumni are available in various parts of Melghat region who play an important role for the effective communication with students.
The existing students of the college also help us a great way in order to reach maximum number of students.
Through this practice we could meet and get in touch with most of the students in Melghat. We could attract more students towards various programme in the college. The number of students seeking admission in not only arts, commerce but also in science stream has been on the increase. These students also opt for technical and other advanced subjects. Their involvement is not restricted to curricular and co-curricular activities only. Most of the students energetically take part in sports, cultural and other activities.
Some students after passing out from our institute seek still higher education. Some could bag various college level awards.
elghat being remote, hilly and widely stretched region conveyance between any two places is not smooth. Besides this, public transports are not available in adequate quantity. Other means of communication are either lacked or very poor like lack of internet connectivity, regular mobile and landline connectivity. To add to this, we must note adverse and at times extremely adverse weather conditions here. Most of the inhabitants of Melghat migrate from one place to others. It is never easy to meet any of them on scheduled time and place.
Almost all the parents are reluctant to send their offspring, wards to other place for educational purposes as they require them as helping hands for livelihood.
The region of Melghat is under privileged and suffering from various socio-economic problems. Ours is the only multi stream institute in the region of Melghat. We make it our concern that the students admitted to the institute must avail of the most and the best here. Regular attendance, good academic performance and multiple participation of students can be facilitated and ensured under Palak Yojana. We also try to address the personal problems of students through Palak Yojana.
Through Palak Yojna, 18 to 20 students are adopted by each teacher who is expected to provide academic and personal guidance to his wards and also keep in touch with the parents. Counselling is also provided to parents when required. The attendance of the students is recorded regularly by the palak teacher. Student’s progress is personally monitored by teachers through “Palak Yojna”.
We could meet and get in touch with most of the students through Palak Yojana. We develop personal relations with them. Students share their difficulties, discrepancies with us. As their real parents lack required awareness about education we have to make up for the void. Through counseling and consultation we can develop a proper mindset among students. This has improved the regularity and students’ participation in various curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities in college.
Students from poor education background or no education background find it difficult to participate in a full fledged manner. Besides they are constrained to involve in the earnings of livelihood for their family. We need to not only counsel and consult with the parents of the students but also the students. We try our best to provide various aids to such students.
It is only after consistent and regular contacts with them the students open up and are willing to share their concerns. Most of the students are from outside and require hostel facility. The existing hostel cannot accommodate even 50 % of the needy. This stands out as a towering must. However we can help a few students in accommodation to some extent.
This is the only college in the periphery of 40 Km providing higher education to the inhabitants of Melghat which is a tribal area. We have been operating in Melghat tribal region of Vidarbha, Maharashrtra for last 20 years to provide the facility of higher education to the tribal inhabitants of this hilly and backward area at their very doorsteps. It has been a challenging job to supply the basic needs of education along with maintaining high standard of higher education, especially in this far off place where it is difficult even to make both ends meet. By way of reward in cash prizes we encourage our students for better performance in university exams and to face the challenges of the present day scenario.
To motivate and appreciate the students, the committee felicitates students scoring highest marks in particular subject by giving cash prizes.. In this scheme the topper students in annual examination from various subjects are felicitated by giving cash prizes. These prizes are sponsored by persons from our management, staff members, guardians, ex-students and well wishers of college. The criterion for selecting the students for awards in particular session depends on the marks obtained by him/her in the annual examination in a particular subject previously declared in prospectus of the college.
The students feel proud to receive cash prizes as a token of their success and they double their efforts. Other students are naturally encouraged for healthy competition. It boosts up positive academic atmosphere.
We wish we could increase the amount of prizes as we have been trying so far to find out more donors under this scheme. We sincerely try to afford financial assistance to our students from all possible sources.
Environment is sum of all social, economical, biological, physical or chemical factors which constitute the surroundings of man who is both creator and molder of his environment. Unfortunately on account of the various activities of man, the composition and complex nature of environment gets changed. These activities although desirable for human development and welfare, lead to generation and release of objectionable materials into the environment thus turning it foul and make the life miserable. The natural environment is clean but due to multifarious activities of man it gets polluted resulting in what is called environmental pollution. Our main aim is to keep environment clean one.
In 2014-15, college organised several environment friendly initiative activities like
2015 i) Energy Awareness Programme:-
The department of Industrial Chemistry organized “Energy Awareness Programme”. For this a stall was kept in a three day ‘Chikhaldara Paryatan Mahotsava’ during 23-25 January 2015. Local residents and tourists from various places of the state and the country visit this festival in large number. The teachers and students explained the importance of energy conservation and use of non-conventional energy sources to the people visiting the stall. Various charts, broachers having energy awareness slogans and information were displayed and related models were also kept in the stall. Energy awareness programme was also organized for the villagers of gram Aaladoh, a neighbouring village on 04/04/2015. Also energy saving broachers were pasted in the college as a part of this initiative.
2016 ii) Say No to Plastic Bags:-
In order to this, clippings on plastic pollution were shown to students of various schools of Chikhaldara. Also students of college made them aware about plastic pollution which is very harmful for environment. We collected old cloths from the people in the town and prepared cloth bags and distributed these reusable bags among the people including tourists.
iii) Rainwater Harvesting Awareness- A programme on Rainwater Harvesting explaining the importance, its management was also organized for the villagers of gram Aaladoh, a neighbouring village on 06/04/2015.
iv) Organization of Lectures: In perspective of this, various lectures on the topics like Ozone layer depletion, Floral diversity, Environmental Protection were arranged.
v) Evidence of Success: We could meet and get in touch with most of the students and people through this program. We developed sensitization about plastic pollution, energy conservation, rainwater harvesting and other environmental problems. Chikhaldara is a hill station and many tourists come here. Chikhaldara Municipal Council also helped us. They sent notices to shopkeepers to stop the use of plastic bags. People also helped and shared the difficulties with us. Through counseling we could make them aware.
1. Problems Encountered and Resources Required:
The inhabitants of Melghat are still educationally backward. It is always difficult to convince them to use eco-friendly items like cloth bags, low energy electric and electronic equipments and to afford additional expenditure to modify house construction in order to get rain water harvesting in place. Besides they don’t directly encounter any pollution related problem. Their poor financial background also adds to our difficulty. The tourists staying here for a temporary period cannot be re-contacted or re-counselled. The concerning local authorities need to be more sensitive as regard eco-friendliness.
Medicinal plants present in Melghat forests have good medicinal values. These plants are present in reserve and buffer areas of Melghat.
Melghat forests have rich diversity of flora, fauna, climate and topography. These plants if nurtured and preserved properly can help not only the tribal here but all the people needing herbal, aurvedic medicine. This may emerge as the cottage industry for the inhabitants of Melghat also.
To train the forests field staff for grassland management in the Protected Areas of Maharashtra and other states.
The Protected Areas Tiger Reserves, National Parks, Wildlife Sanctuaries include the wildlife like Herbivores, Omnivores, Carnivores inhabit in the protected areas. The grasses are the producers, soil binders, providing chemical energy to the wildlife in the form of fodder species. The grasses in the protected forest are in the range of 2- 4.5 % while naturally it should be 6.5 %. Now natural grasslands and relocated areas of the Protected areas are being developed in to good grasslands for the herbivores.
Grasslands are the green ground cover of protected areas in forest. The grasses are useful for grazing habitat of wildlife (Herbivores). The rehabilitated areas of Melghat Tiger Reserve (Maharashtra State) and Satpuda Tiger Reserves, Panna Tiger Reserve, Kanha Tiger Reserve (Madhya Pradesh) have more cultivated lands. These lands have been converted into good grasslands by the seed broadcasting and grasses slips addition by the field staff and forests labors.
There are major threats to the grasslands like soil degradation, loss of soil moisture and leach out of nutrients of the soil, forest fires, weed infestation, woody species encroachment, and change in grasslands composition, exotic species and decrease in nutritive value of the fodder grasses etc.
The faculty in the department of Environmental Science from our college is possessed with the good expertise in the grasses, weeds and forests flora identification and their nutritive values.
The grassland management practices includes