Igniting the Pioneering Spirit towards Conservation

Dr Sentitula Pongen IFS 
DFO Mokokchung Forest Division, Nagaland

Mokokchung ‘The Land Of Pioneers’  has been striving towards Conservation in all its efforts and its legacy is deeply ingrained in the minds of the people and the Mokokchung Forest division has been igniting and Restoring the Forest Conservation efforts selflessly redeeming the Mother Nature.

Every season the Message of Hope and Vitality is being propagated to all the stakeholders through broadcasting network like AIR and fervent appeal made to the public. Department in general has also reached out to town ward councils, NGOs, students, etc. for their conscious approach in conserving wildlife and their safe passage with the arrival of migratory birds such as Amur falcons in the towns of Mokokchung and neighbouring villages .Periodical patrolling along with Market checking are carried out with information disseminated to the public to dissuade them from following practices that are harmful to our biodiversity.

Every responsible citizens  participates and assist the Department in assessing wildlife damages and reporting it, census works, rescue and release program, etc. Mokokchung town has witnessed the increase in slow loris venturing out of their habitat and thus, rescue and release programme for them has increased. Besides slow lorises, release of monkey, weasels, night jar, hornbill, leopard cat, etc. has been undertaken. Tying up with Wildlife Division and Nagaland Zoological Park Dimapur was instrumental in translocation and rehabilitation of wildlife. In the process of rescuing or retrieving the wildlife, the staff engages in providing information to the people about reaching out to the department quickly, encouraging their actions on protection, on conserving wildlife habitats and stopping incessant hunting.

The community participation towards Conservation has created  a sense of belongingness towards restoring of the wild. The village communities participates in wildlife conservation practices and also document their presence, an exercise of setting up of camera traps was conducted in the CCA of Sungratsü village on December 2022. Prior to this, hands-on training for handling of Camera traps was conducted for the range staff and demo shown to the villagers on the field. The members of Sungratsü JFMC actively participated in the exercise. Locations for installation were selected based on the foreknowledge of sites frequented by animals- clearings, marshy & salt lick areas. Four camera traps were installed on 6th December 2022covering an area range of 6.92 Ha. The devices were tagged as Lanu-1, Lanu-2, Tong-3 and Tong-4. The requisite self-timer for recording the photos were set in the camera traps & duration of 1 month allowed for keeping the devices in the field. On 13th January 2023, the camera traps were retrieved & data recorded analyzed. Upon analysis, the following Findings/ Observations could be concluded:

1.     Evidence of varied wild animals presence.

2.     Damages to plantations, mostly by wild animals inhabiting the areas.

3.     Species density couldn’t be ascertained as this would require in-depth study programme.

4.     Duration of camera traps in the field should be longer to capture different animal species.

5.     Locations should be changed if camera traps doesn’t capture animals at that specific site. 

6.     Camera tagged as Lanu-1 captured the most and diverse photos (26 Photos). The spot may be frequented by wild animals for licking mineral salts/ Marshy area, called Ahit/aeit in Ao  dialect.

7. In totality, 3 cameras captured 38 photos of animals. 4 species of wild animals were captured namely- Sambar/ Shitzü, Wild boar/ Pongzü, Pheasant/ Orak and Jungle fowl/ Omüji.

8. The camera started capturing photos from 11th of December 2022, ie., from the 5th day after installation. 18 nos. of animals were captured- Sambar/Shitzü-8, Male-3, Female-5;Wild boar-1; Red Jungle fowl-1 (Male); Kalij Pheasant-8, Male-5, Female-3.

Taking this opportunity, JFMC members of Sungratsü could dissuade the villagers from venturing into the CCA for activities beside conservation practices and the villagers are motivated to document the resources available in their village.