On 19^th June during a rainy morning, 3 FSL-India volunteers Hanan, Alex and Linda, along with Venkatesh, Senior Program Manager of FSL-India, set out to discover the beauty of Kannada Kundru, an island around 10 kilometres from Kundapura.

This small island is surrounded by salty water and the people living there used to get to the mainland by boats. Since 4 years, it is connected with a long, firm bridge. In this way, the inhabitants can easily get to the other side, as well as visitors can reach and explore the surroundings.

While walking through the island, we felt such peace and harmony. We were very surprised by the clean landscape. It was also so silent and calm, so much so that we couldn’t feel the human presence there! Indeed, you don’t meet so many people by walking, and there are no shops, as well as no traffic and honking at all: we only heard the sounds of the birds and the peacocks!

Step by step and rain by rain, we met some women working in the rice fields. They welcomed us with a huge smile and they showed us their work, especially how they are scaring the birds from eating the rice seeds. it’s so important to check it during the first week after the plantation, if they want to get the rice!

Indeed, most of the Kannada Kudru’s inhabitants are working in agriculture. Moreover, we discovered that there are less than fifty houses, inhabited by Hindu and Christian people: we saw a church as well as a temple nearby.

We met Ganesh, a man living on the island since many years, who invited us to enter his house, for meeting the family members and asking some curious questions. For example, as the water is salty everywhere, they showed us how they get sweet water from a pipe provided by the Government.

Ganesh showed us proudly his contribution to the environment. He has a small boat and once he goes for fishing, he brings back a net filled with plastic bottles and various trash. After collecting the garbage, he brings it by bike in a sack to the rubbish dump at Kundapura town. It is always very nice to discover how many people around are taking care of our environment.

Overall, we really liked to visit Kannada Kudru and we look forward to take a ride by boat with the local people, to explore the shoreline.