WTI celebrated Wildlife Week from 2 to 8 October across key projects in India. Various activities that focused on the need to save India’s natural heritage were organised in collaboration with local organisations, forest departments, educational institutions and communities.
Meghalaya
This year marked the first ever Wildlife Week celebration in Halwa Ambeng, a small village in South Garo Hills in Meghalaya. The village, with 29 households and approximate population of 200, lies just 15 km from the main town Baghmara in South Garo hills. The village lies in a crucial elephant corridor for elephants, and hosts a wide diversity of other animal species including hoolock gibbon, clouded leopard, great Hornbill and gecko to name a few. The celebration was conducted by Wildlife Trust of India (WTI)-HCL team in collaboration with the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC) and the State Forest Department. Gittim Nokma (village head), Mr. Salbison, moved the villagers to protect, conserve and respect the wildlife to restore it to its past glory. He conveyed an emotional experience of how the once rich and flourishing biodiversity in the village has been reduced by the very people who should be protecting it.
All the participants were exposed to sensitizing programmes where movie screenings and presentations were conducted in batches for various target groups. A special session on ecofeminism was also held for the females. They were reminded about their power they hold various societal roles, the emphasis was given on how both nature and women must be respected. School students as well as their parents participated in drawing competitions, and also expressed their thoughts on how they can best conserve the wildlife in particular and the environment in general. “We must prohibit hunting and fishing in areas where wildlife habitat is crucial and reserve such areas as a Village Reserve Forest where wildlife can be best conserved in its natural state” said A’king Nokma Mr. Nildarth.
175 villagers participated in the celebration which is approximately 88% of the total population. Few students from Bolbol gittim village, Halwa Atong also joined the celebrations.
Karnataka
Wildlife Week was celebrated jointly by WTI, World Land Trust (WLT), Sri Swami Vivekananda Seva Trust and Karnataka Forest Department in Govt. High School, Kolipalya, on 4th October 2019 as a part of Mudahalli Elephant Link project. WTI-WLT team has been working since 2016 to secure the Chamrajnagar-Talamalai at Mudahalli Elephant Corridor. Awareness rally was conducted in Kolialya village followed by drawing competition, essay writing competition, and quiz for the students. The winners were felicitated with awards. The Forest Range Officer of Punajanuru Range, BRT Tiger Reserve talked about the importance of wildlife conservation. About 80 students, 10 forest staff, and 6 teachers participated in the program.
Assam
Wildlife veterinarian Dr. Samshul Ali delivered a talk on wildlife conservation at Teok Girls Higher Secondary School on 3rd October 2019. The event was jointly organised by Jorhat Forest Division and “Regoni- A Hope” an NGO working on social development in Jorhat district. More than a hundred people including students, parents, forest officials and women organisations, self-help groups had participated at the event.
Meanwhile, young artists celebrated Wildlife Week 2019 with a daylong painting workshop at Kaziranga Discovery Park. Local artists from Kaziranga fringes and Bokakhat from Ayushkar Chitrakala Vidyalay and art teacher cum artist and students of Difflopathar ME & H School participated along with an independent artist as well in the painting workshop. The artists group created three paintings on the wildlife and habitat of Kaziranga landscape.
Meanwhile students of schools performed a street play for an influential audience comprising officials from the forest department, civic agencies, visitors and political parties on the opening day of Manas National Park. This culminated in policy makers pledging to implement the ban on plastics in Manas. Read more about it here.
Kerala
The mangrove interpretation centre under the Kannur Kandal Project celebrated wildlife week through various programs viz. a class on fish diversity, photo exhibitions, documentary screening and painting competition. More than 1300 people were reached out during the wildlife week celebration.
Chhattisgarh
A state-wide celebration of the 2019 Wildlife Week was organised in collaboration with the Chhattisgarh Forest Department and supported by Oracle on the conservation of the wild buffalo.
Like every year, a painting competitions for schools was conducted across the Udanti Sitanadi Tiger Reserve (USTR) landscape. Students from class V to class XII participated in the event. With the forest department, WTI reached 20 schools, including all government educational institutions scattered across the USTR core. Similar events were carried out across the capital city of Raipur where 120 Students from two schools were brought together to put their imagination to paper conservation messages. WTI also collaborated with the Department of Zoology, Kalinga University to host 12 schools, comprising 200 participants, to carry out similar Wildlife Week activities. The participants included students from both government and private schools from around the newly developed model-city of Nava Raipur. An interactive seminar was hosted by WTI to bring up the basics of wildlife, its need for conservation and how students can help.
Apart from the presentations and painting competitions, the students got to hear from a highly prestigious panel comprising of Shri Atul Shukla (Principal Chief Conservator of Forests & Chief Wildlife Warden), Dr Rahul Kaul (Vice President, WTI) and Dr. Byju John (Director General, Kalinga University).
A wall painting was also done on the side lines on the campus walls of Kalinga University to spread awareness among its 6000 students and put forth a message across the whole neighbourhood.
A fitting finale to Wildlife Week was manifested in the release of a special postal cover on the Wild Buffalo – the state animal of Chhattisgarh by the Chief Minister of the state along with the Forest Minister. Read more about it here.
