Longleng, August 4 (MExN): An awareness campaign for conservation of forest and wildlife to mitigate human-animal conflict and wildlife crime was organised by the Forest Department at Sitap Village, Longleng District on July 31.
Satya Prakash Tripathi, Chief Wildlife Warden, in his keynote address stated the genesis of the human-animal conflict prevalent in the State and migratory elephant problem in Sitap. He highlighted the policies of the State Government and the MoEF & CC, GoI, New Delhi for addressing the problem. He spoke on importance of Forest & Wildlife, scenario of forest and wildlife in Nagaland, concept of Community Reserves. He appealed to the people for protection of forest and wildlife, come forward for declaring their forest in to the community reserve and contact forest officials immediately in case of damage of their crop/properties/human life.
Suman W M Sivachar IFS, Wildlife Warden, Kiphire, deliberated on working of a territorial/wildlife forest division, detailed the procedure to be adopted for declaration of community reserves, explained regarding the community reserves notified in the State/ Longleng District/Sitap area. He also stressed about the ecological importance of wildlife with particular reference about the importance of wildlife in the ecosystem with the examples of contributions of honey bees in pollination and communication behaviour among dolphins. Awareness was also given on the applicability of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 in Nagaland.
During the interaction, the questions raised by the villagers were responded by the forest officers. It was stated in a press release that the villagers appealed to the Forest Department to conduct such awareness in each village of the State every year.
