Village Champions facilitated trip to Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong landscape

way2barak, April 10: An exposure visit was conducted during April 4 to 7 for the “Village Champions” (VCs)- who are local community members from human-elephant conflict (HEC) affected villages of eastern Assam areas and West Garo Hills in Meghalaya, in Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong landscape of Assam. This exposure visit was facilitated by community-based eco-cultural tourism initiative under the “Journey for Learning”.

The VCs are trained community members who facilitate Aaranyak and British Asian Trust’s initiative to bolster human-elephant coexistence through a bottom-up approach of community empowerment, and monitoring HEC, supported by Darwin Initiative.

The VCs participation in implementing the project is remarkable, and to recognize their support and cooperation, we organised this exposure trip to further build their capacity to contribute to conservation.

A team of 11 VCs, along with Aaranyak project team took part in this educational tour that began with an eco-cultural village walk in the villages of Phumen Engti, and Hemai Lekthe of Karbi Anglong, followed by another forest trekking in Ingnam Kengkam.

During this visit the team interacted with the indigenous Karbi community on eco-tourism model, agroforestry, sericulture, and handloom & handicraft practices. The team also had an interesting interaction on experiential Karbi-way of cooking in bamboo nodes.

The following day, a morning safari to Kaziranga National Park was conducted for the team to witness the rich biodiversity, and management practices to secure the ecosystem. Thereafter, another important session of interaction with local entrepreneurs through “Pirbi”- a community-led business to understand how the local knowledge and products helps in sustainable livelihood sources for the local communities. Moreover, the team paid a visit to community nursery as well as the Orchid and Biodiversity Park.

This exposure trip has made a significant impact on the VCs as this was the first time they got a vivid idea on the concept of eco-tourism and how community-led initiatives are crucial for protecting biodiversity and ensuring well-being of people.

Aaranyak’s officials, Dr. Jayanta Roy, Bhaskar Barukial, Sunny Paul, Beauty Terangpi, Rangsina Phangso, Stephen Takbi (volunteer), Kristi Borah and Nayam Ali (intern) facilitated the entire exposure trip.