It was fun galore for the participants as they revelled in nature’s lap imbibing the sounds and touch of nature. The participants in HNAF’s fifth annual nature study camp have come from places like Balurghat, Siliguri, Malbazar and Lataguri. The Kolkata-based organisation Society for the visually Handicapped has also collaborating with HNAF in organising this four day camp that took off from February 15.

The participants have been taught to differentiate between a variety of trees by touching their barks and leaves. They will also learn to distinguish between bird cries. “It turned out that the visually challenged are more gifted than their sighted counterparts. When we asked to identify the plants by mixing their leaves up, they had a success rate of 80 per cent when their more fortunate counterparts struggled with it,” said Animesh Bose, programme co-ordinator, HNAF.

The children were also accompanied to a trip to the Gorumara National Park for an elephant camp where they learnt all about elephants and their lives.

“Our focus was to draw visually challenged children from small towns in the state who have not had such exposure before. A number of facilities for the visually challenged have come up in cities and towns but a large majority of them in the interior areas still continue to be deprived,” said Bose.