Canister Man – Jamuna Prasad Tiwari
Jayprakash Panwar ‘JP’
When you come across a very unusual word ‘Canister Man’, then, of course, you will try to find out the precise meaning and mission of it.
My research takes me to a biology teacher, who resides in Dwarahaat of Almora district of Kumaun region. His name is Jamuna Prasad Tiwari a lecturer in a Government Intermediate College (GIC), Batulia. Born and brought up in a remote village of Almora, Tiwari had to struggle for his schooling. He had to traverse 6 kilometres to reach his school, besides to do most of the household works like fetching water, collecting fuelwood and fodder from the jungle along with agriculture work. He becomes very emotional while discussing his childhood. “I have that sense of hardship and at the same time felt more responsible to bring out the inherent talent of our new generation as a teacher” expressed Tiwari.
After completing his education he joined G. B. Pant Himalayan Environment and Development Institute, Kosi Katarmal, Almora a premier research institute as a researcher. During this time span, Tiwari has contributed to environment and conservation awareness in various districts of Uttarakhand. Then onwards environmental conservation and innovation became his passion. I am pushed by the idea and thought of the biodiversity conservation work of Shri Kalyan Singh Rawat, founder of the ‘Maiti Movement, now Padm Awardee’ and Chipko Movement. After a few years of stint in the G.B. Pant Institute, he selected as a lecturer in Government Intermediate College.
While working as a lecturer he has got the chance to take up the charge of Eco Club of GIC Dwarahaat. Under this club, he took the first task of beautification of his school, which he successfully completed, and then he has started work on forest fire and environmental conservation work in his college and surrounding villages. By experimenting above innovations, the student was not only enhancing their academic excellence but also having practical knowledge on the ground. “The result was amazing, my student Kavi’s environment conservation model selected for the National Science Exhibition in 2007, in the same year my two students participated in the State Science Exhibition. Naval Tiwari got the third position in State Science Exhibition in 2006 and Deepak Kumar conferred the second position in 2012 in the same competition, happily expressed Canister Man Tiwari”.
Tiwari’s educational innovations list is quite long. For effective and practical teaching, he has started Sunday Classes, Birthday Programs, Girl’s Motivation The program, Writing Skill Classes, and School Beautification and so on. In Teachers Learning Material (TLM), Tiwari won the first position in his district, similarly, in Teacher’s Project, he has conferred two awards at the state level. As an academic coordinator of district Almora, Tiwari has done a tremendous contribution to activate National Children Science Congress, resulted than onwards every year two to three students are participating in national-level events. Likewise, as an Escort Teacher, his two students selected in a national event held at Bhopal in 2013.
Tiwari’s contribution towards student’s academic excellence and environment conservation has no stop. For the last few years and before, he was an instrumental volunteer of the National Cleanliness Campaign. His very innovative idea was to make a colourful dustbin from the tin box usually called Kanaster in the Hindi language. So far hundreds of such canister boxes, he has converted as dustbin and flower pots, and by looking at this, people started calling him “Canister Man” as a nickname. “I feel happy when people and students called me “Kantar wale guruji,” Canister Teacher says Jamuna Prasad Tiwari”.
He is continuously on his mission, his work appreciated at every level. He has received a number of awards from various institutions and organizations. Shailesh Matiyani Teacher Award, SWEEP Brand Ambassador, USARC, UCOST and Governor’s Awards are a few of them.
