Assam students sensitised to biodiversity conservation, coexistence with wild elephants

File photo for representative purposes only

The region's leading biodiversity conservation organisation, Aaranyak, has organised a series of awareness events to sensitise young students to biodiversity conservation as well as to impress upon them the need for coexistence with wild elephants through mitigation of the human elephant conflict (HEC) in Assam.

The conservation sector NGO conducted two outreach events for the students of Basa Gaon ME School and Ujani Sadiya High School in Tinsukia district of Assam with the objective of highlighting their role in the conservation of biodiversity and its relation to human well-being.

The students were informed about the interdependence of various species on the planet and their importance in the ecosystem.

Altogether, 116 students could be reached during these events conducted in two different schools.

Audio-visual presentations titled "Species Interdependence" and "Biodiversity Conservation and Human wellbeing", 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 multipronged approaches to promote human-elephant coexistence.

These outreach events were coordinated by Aaranyak's Rimpee Moran, Ejaj Ahmed, Debojit Gogoi, and Tonmoi Priya Gogoi, with support from the school's teacher.

Earlier, this month, a series of outreach events were conducted in various schools in Udalguri district, Assam, with the aim of raising 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 IEC materials in Nunaipara TG LP School, Uttar Sekhar ME School, and Milanjyoti Amjuli ME School on May 3, 13 and 14, respectively, and reached out to around 250 students from these three schools.

The Aaranyak team delved into the importance of elephants, their role as ecosystem engineers, and how everyone in 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 that is faced in our day-to-day lives and how, with little action, 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 part of Aaranyak's initiative, supported by the SBI Foundation, to promote human-elephant coexistence and protect biodiversity.