We made a trip to Savarkundla, which is a village beside the Gir National Park in Gujarat, India. There are about a 1000 wells which are deep inside the forest area for the animals to drink water from, but their depth is an issue, due to which there were many reported cases of animals, especially Asiatic lions, falling over in the well, out of which some died because of drowning. So our activity, in collaboration with a resident team who have taken up the whole project to make covers for all the deep wells, was to help in making a cover for one of those wells.

In this activity, we developed new skills in doing metal work and how tools and machines are used to cut or weld metal sheets, rods, as well as nets. This was not as challenging as I had thought in my mind because the professionals there were very helpful and made the job easier and safe for us. Some of us had done some similar stuff in our Makerspace but we dealt with wood and ply, and cutting metal rods was very different from what we had done before. These skills are going to make simple construction projects very easy for me as I wouldn’t have to learn it then from a hired professional.

For this project, as I mentioned a lot of work was to be done in different parts of the construction, like welding and cutting etc. so we as a group worked collaboratively to complete the whole making. We divided ourselves into three groups, as the construction consisted of three parts, Firstly, cutting was supposed to be done according to measurements, so one of our groups was assigned this part of the construction. Then the cut material was welded into the main designed frame, for which, with the help of professionals, one of our group was involved and helped in speeding up the process. And at last, the final grinding was to be done, which is, giving final touches to the cover, and for this our third group was working on this. All of this segregation and collaboration speeded up the whole process as it would have taken at least double the time if all of us were working on one part and when it was complete, then move to another. We faced a challenge of people being unoccupied, as the number of students that we were, was a lot more than the work and tools available to use, so at a time, maximum 10-11 students could work in the various processes.

The issue here was essential to be dealt with, which was saving lives of animals, and in focus endangered species. This is a global issue as we hear the news every now and then about another endangered species becoming extinct because of natural or human causes, or some other species getting endangered to become extinct. The population of Asiatic Lion which is only seen in this particular habitat and location in the whole world was decreasing because of this issue, so helping rescue these animals in any way would be very beneficial for everyone. Students from our school have been going on this project to contribute since 3 years. Contributing to making the covers meant a lot to me, as it meant saving lives of innocent and endangered animals in a unique and safe way.

I developed the IB learner profiles of Knowledgeable and Inquirer as we got to know about the issue of Asiatic Lions and their decreasing population because of the open wells. This was an issue we were not that informed about. We gained inner knowledge as for how critical this case is, and how it should be and is being dealt with.  To contribute to this issue and complete our project, we had learned new skills like cutting, grinding and welding specifically in the construction of covers for wells, and all of us enjoyed doing that for a good cause. This, evidently, helped the resident team there who have the aim of covering all the 1000+ wells in the surrounding area, as they got some extra hands to help them in construction and installing the metal covers. We successfully made and installed the cover in the time limit of 3 days that we had. It felt very exceptional to be a part of a movement whose motive is to save lives of an endangered species that is only found in this part of the whole world. I would want more people to actively participate in this and other such movements to save lives of any kind of animal species and get that feeling of happiness and know that you have contributed a lot to the society.

Installation