Environment Education Centre
The Environment Education Centre is established on the banks of the estuary where Kaluveli wetland joins the sea, in the Chittamoor taluk of the Kanjeevaram district of Tamil Nadu in southern India, about 50 kms from the city of Pondicherry. It is built on the foundation land and is run in partnership with the Nadukuppam Panchayat
The area has three habitats, seashore, estuary, and coastal forest, which makes the location ideal for such a centre with an associated environmental education camp site.
The centre, built with stabilised mud blocks, has a spacious circular ground floor and a much smaller upper floor with windows all around, affording a magnificent view of the surrounding land, including the canal, seashore, forest and the fort in the distance.
The natural environment is brought to the target groups through exhibits, interactive sessions, practical experiences, nature trails, nature games, etc., in a way which is interesting, pleasing and captivating. It is a classroom without the usual associated drudgery of books, lessons and standard written work.
​The Vision for the Centre is:
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That the Environmental Education Centre becomes a point for community involvement in integrated rural planning and development.
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That the necessary skills to bring biodiversity back to the land are researched and taught involving the community, particularly school children.
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That it provides a demonstration site for the most appropriate ecological solutions developed over the last decades in the nearby Auroville International Community.
