INDIA: Bloomers on wildlife run loose in textbooks

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Link:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Bloomers_on_wildlife/articleshow/1911286.cms

 

Bloomers on wildlife run loose in textbooks

Raheel Dhattiwala

[ 14 Apr, 2007 2121hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

 

AHMEDABAD: Polar bears may never have been to the northern coniferous

forests of Asia, but for class VI students of Gujarat Education Board,

these Artic animals are 'found in large numbers' in Asian forests.

 

The forest cover in Gujarat suddenly increases in the class X textbook

where the forest cover of the state is 'more than 10 per cent' of

total cover in India; the actual figure is only 2.8 per cent. " Had

they written that the habitat of polar bears is sea ice in Siberia, it

would not have been incorrect.

 

Coniferous forest is ridiculous, " says eminent conservationist from

Gujarat, Lavkumar Khachar. Clearly, it's not just the Asiatic lion

which gets a cold shoulder from the Gujarat State Textbook Board.

Wildlife in general is in a sorry state in our books.

The number of wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and conservation

reserves in India, is also inaccurate in the book which was revised in

2006. As per the book, there are 490 sanctuaries, 89 national parks

and 13 reserves. The central government's statistics, as of 2005, put

sanctuaries at 500, national parks at 95, conservation reserves at 2

and protected areas at 597.

 

The Social Science textbook of classes IX and X laud the

'praiseworthy' efforts of the Gujarat Wild Life Society — a society,

if there is one, which is unheard of by conservationists. Both Khachar

and Amit Kumar, deputy conservator of forests, said they have never

heard of it.

 

It doesn't end at this. Sentences that an 11-year-old would have to

rack his brains to unravel, abound in the textbooks. The chapter

'Human Life in Asia' in class VI, says, " People in cold region

celebrate a festival when they kill a whale. They also use the skin

and bones of whales. "

 

" Whale skin has no use at all. As for the festival, it makes little

sense to me. Can't say what a child would learn from it, " says Khachar.