Students sensitised on biodiversity conservation, coexistence with wild elephants

way2barak, May 22: Aaranyak has organised a series of awareness events of late to woo young students for biodiversity conservation as well as to impress upon them the need for coexistence with wild elephants through mitigation of the human elephant conflict in the state of Assam.

The conservation sector NGO conducted two outreach events on May 20 for the students of No.1 Basa Gaon ME School and Ujani Sadiya High School in Tinsukia district of Assam with the objective to underscore their role in conservation of biodiversity and its relation to human well-being. The students were spoken about inter-dependence of various species on the planet ad their importance in the ecosystem.

Altogether, 116 students were could be reached out during these events conducted  in two different schools. Audio-visual presentations titled “Species Interdependence” and “Biodiversity Conservation and Human well-being”, were made before the students while  a nature game called ‘Web of Life’ was conducted for them.

Aaranyak partnered with the British Asian Trust and with support from the Biodiversity Challenge Fund, UK has adopted multi-pronged approaches to promote human-elephant coexistence. These outreach events were coordinated by Aaranyak’s Rimpee Moran, Ejaj Ahmed, Debojit Gogoi, Tonmoi Priya Gogoi with support from the teacher of the school.

Earlier, this month a series of outreach events were conducted in various schools of Udalguri district, Assam with an aim to raise awareness on how to coexist with wild elephants.

A team from Aaranyak conducted the organisation’s signature outreach campaign “Gajah Kotha ” using the well-illustrated materials In Nunaipara TG LP School, Uttar Sekhar ME School, and No.1 Milanjyoti Amjuli ME School, on 3rd, 13th and 14th May respectively, and reached out to around 250 students from these three schools.

The Aaranyak team delved into the importance of elephants and their role as ecosystem engineers, and how everyone in the society  needs to proactively work towards protecting the species and its habitat, which is also intricately linked with human well-being.

Additionally, the resource persons from Aaranyak highlighted the climate change crisis which is faced in our day-to day life, and how with little actions we can cumulatively combat this crisis.

Aaranyak’s team comprising Rabiya Daimari, Mondeep Basumatari and Abhijit Saikia conducted the programme, with assistance from Bikash Tossa and Pradip Barman.

This  series of outreach events is a part of Aaranyak’s initiative, supported by SBI Foundation, to promote human-elephant coexistence and protect biodiversity.