Maitha Al Kaabi, Reem Al Junaibi and Masdar Institute members meet with Robert Swan.

See the complete Masdar Institute article on how these two incredible women came to be a part of the 2012 IAE Expedition Team here: Masdar Institute News

The E-Base, Pench- India is a center for educating the community, living in and around Pench on conservation and sustainability. Through the showcase of renewable energy, a series of monthly weekend workshops have been sponsored by the Ashok Piramal Group and conducted by Chandini Chabbra

The first workshop was held on January 21-22, 2012 with more than 200 students from three different district schools in Pench, Madhya Pradesh. Chandini, presented a talk on Antarctica and Robert Swan, who inaugurated the E-Base in November. Different activities that included information about Antarctica, solar powered E-Bases, different species living in Antarctica and how we can make a difference to help protect the last greatest wilderness, were eagerly understood by the children who participated in these workshops.

Chandini using ice and gloves to teach the kids about how penguins keep themselves warm in Antarctica and how human bodies cannot adapt to the cold easily

The children were excited and thrilled to learn about a new continent; they showed tremendous team work in outdoor activity and were able to easily identify and answer questions asked at the end of the workshop.

By engaging community children, we hope to instill a sense of protection for the environment and at the same time create a model that we can replicate in national parks and tiger reserves across India.

If we can have educational workshops run entirely on renewable energy for these students, we can successfully communicate and promote clean energy to the tourists who visit the park and persuade them to be sustainable back in their respective cities.

On 15 January, Robert Swan completed the Standard Charter Mumbai Half Marathon in 2:12:51.  The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon is India’s biggest marathon. First held in 2004, the Mumbai Marathon is part of “The Greatest Race on Earth”, an event sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank.
Great job Rob!!!

This video is a preview of  the complete 2041 Ganges Expedition.  In 2011, Robert Swan and 2041 embarked on the Ganges Expedition in India, from Gangotri to the Goumukh Glacier. The Glacier is the hub for India’s mother river, the Ganges, which supplies clean drinking water throughout India. This Expedition focused on clean water, sanitation and renewable energy in schools, homes and the workplace as well as the importance of water in the Indian Tiger Reserves.

http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/

As our Ganges Expedition comes to a close, we would like to send a very special thank you to all that have made it possible. Antonette from Ashok Piramal Group, Mrs. Louise Sharma from Punjlloyd, Mr. Ajit Kumar and Pramath Sinha from 9.9 Media, Mr. Vinod from Crystal adventures in Dehradun, Coca Cola India and the Support My Schools program, Swati Hingorani, Hasita Bhammar, Divya Nawale, The Ashok Piramal Group, Harsh and Reshma Piramal and many more who we had the chance to cross paths with on this incredible journey. A very special thank you to all the children of India-the future. The ways in which you live your life will create opportunity for the next generation.

What is next for the Pench E-base?

Now that the E-Base is running off renewable energy, the Ashok Piramal Group in association with 2041 hopes to use the space kindly given by the Forest Department in Pench to start a series of environmental and conservation workshops for the local community children.

In the future, they will partner with 2041 Alumni, Chandini Chhabra to develop the content on conservation so that there will be interactive activities based on conservation for the children. The proposed topics of these workshops are Sustainability, Conservation and Clean Energy. The E-Base will therefore be an education base sort of like a classroom but the lessons these children will learn will be different from that at their village schools.

The other function of the E-Base is to engage the tourists who visit this center in matters of sustainable living, understand the difficulty of the forest rangers’ jobs and be aware of the fact that saving tigers will lead to saving our eco-system that is immensely important for a country like India. They plan to do this by showing them a few documentaries based on Antarctica’s E-Base, The Day in the Life of a Ranger and a few movies on Tigers. They hope that when they visit this E-Base, they get extremely involved with an enthusiastic feeling of saving our tigers and in turn help spread the awareness to their friends and family.

The Forest Department can use the E-Base as a portal to interact with the community and hence will be seen as partners in providing information and this will build the goodwill between the department and the local community which facilitates a better environment for the national park. For now, we are not looking at any other reserve; till we have a successful model of all out activities and goals. Once it seems to do what we wish for it to do, we will look into reserves that could adopt the same philosophy of sustainability and conservation.

The E-Base India is in the simplest sense a gateway for bridging the divide between the community/ forest department/ tourists and our fragile environment. By showcasing renewable energy, tiger conservation initiatives and developing a model to help the local community protect the area around the reserve, we hope to instill a lifelong compassion for nature and a belief that there is still hope for tigers to survive and roam the forests of India. We think that this center of renewable energy is just a stepping stone to a bigger conservation initiative that will save the tiger, save the forest, preserve our water system and bring prosperity.

Our new E-base has launched in Pench, India with a great mission. This is the first time that the 2041 E-Base concept has been replicated outside the Antarctic and just like the E-Base in Antarctica it runs entirely on renewable energy. The E-Base has been made possible through the support of the Ashok Piramal Group and the Wildlife Conservation Trust. The E-base is situated in the Interpretation Center at the entrance of the gate and is a room that is equipped with a plasma screen and a laptop. It will serve to engage the local community in tiger conservation, habitat protection as well as act as a portal for learning about sustainable living.

Solar Batteries for the E-base

Rob with the E-base solar panels

On 21st November, Robert along with the Forest Department at Pench National Park inaugurated the E-Base India. The E-Base in Pench will serve as an education hub for the local community and tourists to learn about conservation and preservation of the tiger.
This is the first time that the 2041 E-Base concept has been replicated outside the Antarctic and just like the E-Base in Antarctica it runs entirely on renewable energy. The E-Base has been made possible through the support of the Ashok Piramal Group and the Wildlife Conservation Trust.
The E-base is situated in the Interpretation Center at the entrance of the gate and is a room that is equipped with a plasma screen and a laptop. It will serve to engage the local community in tiger conservation, habitat protection as well as act as a portal for learning about sustainable living.
The inauguration took place with a presentation on the Antarctic and Ganges Expedition and Robert praised the efforts of the forest rangers, who work tirelessly to help preserve India’s national wealth- the Tiger. When tigers’ thrive, the eco-system thrives and in turn sequesters carbon and provides clean water.
Never content with taking it easy, Robert mounted an elephant and went in search of tigers.

Recently, while riding through India on the Ganges River Expedition, Robert Swan had a chance to visit the Vasant Valley School in India. While he was there he was able to meet up with some incredible young leaders who really care to make an difference in the environment and the future of India.