Aaranyak

News in Brief on Activities of Aaranyak

EQUIPMENTS OFFERED TO KAZIRANGA NATIONAL PARK

Aaranyak in collaboration with the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation of UK, as part of the 10 years Wireless Communication Network Project in Kaziranga National Park, has further sponsored 25 solar panels to charge the wireless handsets and 20 batteries to run the wireless Base station in Kaziranga National Park. The equipments sponsored by Aaranyak and DSWF is likely to strengthen the wireless communication in the park, specially on the onset of monsoon which often brings moderate to high flood in the national park. In a function held at the office of the Kaziranga National Park in Bokakhat the equipments were handed over to the Park Director and the Divisional Forest Officer on 22nd June 2008.

World Environment Day 2008:

AARANYAK (a Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and the Institution of Engineers (India), Assam State Centre jointly celebrated the World Environment Day-2008 on June 5(Thursday), 2008 at the Institution of Engineers premises at Panbazar, Guwahati. More than 200 students from more than 10 schools of Guwahati, accompanied by their teachers and parents, thronged the auditorium of the IoE and participated in two competitive events viz. speech competition and poster display competition held on the theme of this year’s celebration i.e. Kick the habit(CO₂): Towards a low carbon economy. The celebrations started with a presentation of Dr. Partha J. Das of AARANYAK on global warming and climate change which was followed by speech and poster competition events. Dr. A.K. Bhagawati, Eminent Environmentalist and Head, Department of Geography of Gauhati University delivered a popular talk in the open session presided by Sri A.K. Mitra, Chairman of the Institution of Engineers.

A panel discussion was held in the evening on the theme Climate change in northeast India: Impacts and mitigation in the context of knowledge, policy and practice. A select group of about 50 participants comprising academicians, environmentalists, engineers, foresters, energy practitioners, business and industry representatives, social scientists and NGO leaders brainstormed for over three hours to highlight all important aspects of climate change relevant to this region. Dr. Bibhab Talukdar, Secretary General of AARANYAK, welcomed the panelists and the discussants.

The panel comprised Dr. Chandan Mahanta (Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-Guwahati), Mr. O.P. Pande(Chief Conservator of Forests, Biodiversity, Assam), M.K. Chauadhuri ( Additional Director, Assam Energy Development Agency), D.K. Sarma(Executive President, Northeast Chamber of Commerce and Industry) and Mr. A. K. Dutta(Chairman, Assam Pollution Control Board).

The panel, chaired and moderated by Dr. A.K. Goswami, renowned educationist, emphasized on creating a sound knowledgebase of climate change and its impacts in northeast India and forming a network of researchers, educators and policymakers to formulate strategies for reduction of risk and vulnerability. Such a brainstorming session on climate change in northeast India was considered a pioneering and fruitful attempt by the participants and the panel encouraged the organizers to disseminate awareness and education about climate change in the region extensively through such endeavours.

It needs to be mentioned that AARANYAK had established a Water & Climate Programme six years ago under the aegis of which it has been carrying out research, education and advocacy activities on various aspects of water and climate related issues in northeast India. A premier NGO of northeast, AARANYAK has recently undertaken several research initiatives on climate variability, assessment of vulnerability, disaster risk reduction as well as adaptation mechanism in relation to climate change impacts. A set of awareness and educational resources on climate change will soon be published by AARANYAK to help spread the information, knowledge and concern about climate change in the entire northeastern region.

Cycle Rally to Save Wildlife from Kaziranga to Orang National Park 15-17 November 2007

Aaranyak in association with over 18 local organisations and Kaziranga National Park Authority has orgaised a cycle rally from Kaziranga National Park to Orang National Park in Assam what is being billed as the biggest and effective conservation rally in Assam. The Rally was flagged off by Mr. Suren Buragohain, the Director, Kaziranga National Park on 15th November at Bokakhat at 10 am. Mr. Bankim Sarma, Divisional Forest Officer of Eastern Assam Wildlife Division, Bokakhat has lauded the effort and hoped that the conservation massages could be reached out to villagers through such effort.

About 30 cyclists covered a distance of 140km in a bid to create awareness among the masses about conservation of the two most endangered mammals of the two parks — the tiger and the rhino. At different points along the route — covering the south and north banks of the Brahmaputra — the rallyists have performed street plays to reach out to the people. The rally was thought of after 19 rhinos were killed by poachers at Kaziranga while two tigers at Orang were poisoned by the villagers this year.

Apart from Aaranyak, Bhumi, Green Earth, Upaytakya, Dagrab, are some of the organisations that took part in the rally. The cyclists were welcomed at various locations by local NGOs, police, forest officials, including WWF-India's North Bank Landscape Office.

Workshop on Tiger Monitoring held at Orang National Park 5-7 November 2007

Aaranyak, a scientific and industrial research organization (SIRO) of NE India working for biodiversity conservation organized a thee-days training programme on “Monitoring Tigers and Prey Animals: Advanced Training for Biologists and Managers” during 5-7 November 2007. The training programme was organized in the Orang National Park as part of the ongoing collaborative initiative of the Assam Forest Department and Aaranyak to monitor tigers and its prey animals in Assam.

Monitoring tigers and prey animals, using modern scientific techniques has become a need of the hour as the tiger population throughout the country has witnessed decline. Though estimated as 3500-4000 tigers in the country, unfortunately, present data indicate that there are only 1300-1500 tigers left in India. The Forests in Assam are inhabited by 265 tigers as per the last pug mark census carried out by the Forest Department in 2002.

The three-days training was meant for the biologists and forest managers and it covered different aspects of tiger and prey animals monitoring. These included general introduction on tiger, its ecology and current status, concepts of population monitoring, sign survey for tiger and prey animals, distance sampling and line transect Survey, capture-recapture sampling and camera trap survey, lab & field exercises and data analyses. The participants, while exercising the camera trapping method could in fact capture a tiger in one of the camera traps they had placed in the park, which was a good learning as well as excitement for them. The training was coined as successful one by the participants in their feedback comments as they wished the training be of longer duration to learn and practice the techniques more. Two expert tiger biologists, Dr. Bivash Pandav, Programme Leader, Tiger and other Asian Big Cats from WWF International and Mr. Abishek Harihar from the Wildlife Institute of India were present in the training programme as instructors.

The training was attended by seven wildlife biologists from Aaranyak and seven Forest Department staff, which was inaugurated by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Mr. M. C. Malakar. In his inaugural talk, Mr. Malakar encouraged the biologists and the Department staff to work hard and assist the forest managers with vital information on tigers and prey animals that will be vital for saving tigers in Assam in near future. He also congratulated Aaranyak for arranging such advanced training on tigers and prey monitoring in Assam. Later, Mr. Sukumar Momin, DFO Mangaldoi concluded the training programme by encouraging the organizers to organize more such training for the staff of the Forest Department to enable them to gather scientific information on tigers and prey animals which would be very useful in managing the animals and habitats to mitigate frequent human-tiger conflicts around the Orang National Park.

The Range Officer of the Orang National Park, Mr. Jayanta Deka provided warm welcome to the participants and hosted them in the Park during the training period. The Staff of the Park provided full support in the field while conducting exercise in the forest. The US Fish and Wildlife Service have sponsored the training programme for biologists of Aaranyak and the forest staff.

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