As many as 30 visually-impaired students from a city school were taken on a nature walk to a delightful experience of envisioning birds through their distinctive sounds.
The children of Ranga Rao Memorial School for Disabled were taken to the lake environs to help them “imagine” about birds.
Sahana, a volunteer, taught the students the skill of recognising birds through their sounds.
“Students were curious whenever they heard sounds of different birds. Our volunteers — Anagha and Yogendra — shared with them information about various birds and how to recognise them from their sounds. A day before we familiarised them with sounds of 30 birds and they recognised nearly 20 of them, including Indian grey hornbill, white-cheeked barbet, asian koel, common myna and Indian peacock during their visit to the lake,” said Ms. Sahana.
The nature walk was organised by NR Foundation, the philanthropic arm of NR Group, manufacturers of incense sticks, which runs the school.
Uma N., an SSLC student, sid, “It was a memorable learning experience for me and my fellow classmates …. we will cherish this forever.”
“The activity was conducted to promote their holistic development. It was a progressive initiative for the overall growth and development of these children,” said Guru, chairman, NR Group.
Bird watching is a popular form of outdoor activity. However, if the focus is entirely on watching the birds, the richness of information in bird’s call and song will be missed.
Listening to the birds is a delightful and gratifying way to explore nature and this has helped students to experience the diversity of birds, a release issued here stated.
It is the science of ornithology, which is based largely on the sense of hearing, that allowed students to have such an experience. Usually, hobbyists and professionals use this phenomenon to identify birds with their distinctive voice, the release added.
