When it comes to imbibing the spirit of adventure through nature study among children of all age groups, there’s no one better than the Rovers and Mountaineers Club of Alipur Duar.

Created back in 1939 by Jagannath Biswas, the famed poet, nature lover and adventurer of Alipur Duar, the environmental outfit is incidentally the oldest one in North Bengal as it was formally set up in 1956. It happens to be one of the oldest environmental outfits in West Bengal.

Spurred on by a mission to bring the youth closer to nature and extend a helping hand to conserve the environment, the environmental organisation has been making a conscious effort to host nature study camps and impart an array of adventure courses for children from underprivileged backgrounds.

Subrato Ganguly, general secretary, Rovers and Mountaineers Club, said, “We have organised our annual nature study camps for children in the age group of eight to 14 years from 26 to 31 December last year. The nature camp was mainly for school students coming from tea garden and tribal-dominated areas. The camp was held at Hatipota in the vicinity of Buxa Tiger Reserve in Alipur Duar district that had the presence of around 77 school students. With the help of the Sahastra Seema Bal, we hired tents for children and there were sessions on setting up shelter, fire making, identifying flora and fauna and hearing the chirping of birds.

The school-goers were also imparted training on the basic knowledge of rock climbing and river crossing.” There was a time when the environmental set-up was known to organise mountain expeditions. In April this year, the group also took up high-altitude trekking for those with an inclination for adventure.

Ganguly said, “The trek was on for nine days for the younger generation in the age bracket of 18 to 35 years. There were about 27 participants in the trek that was held from Jhandi to Lava in Neora Valley National Park in Darjeeling Hills. The participants were imparted training on ways to set up shelter, rustle up food items and given the eliminatory know-how of mountain climbing.”

The environmental outfit is also into conducting nature study and adventure courses for children, and high-altitude trekking courses for the younger lot in the age group of 18 to 35 years. Besides, it also takes up coastal trekking and had carried one out in Andhra Pradesh in 2012.

Ganguly said, “We are highly motivated to preserve the environment and keep it clean. We never pollute the ambience when organising nature study camps.

We hope that more youngsters would come forward to conserve nature.” Till now, it has been their single-minded endeavour to organise nature study camps and trekking expeditions in the Himalayas.

Ganguly said, “We do have plans to host a one-day camp for children this month. It will focus on fitness and how to keep oneself dry during the rains.”