In an effort to introduce nature to urban dwellers, Aaranyak, one of the region’s foremost biodiversity conservation organisations, has launched an urban nature educational campaign that has received tremendous mileage and enthusiasm among students and youths. As part of the programme intitule “Nature’s Wonderland-a journey of curiosity”, participants are exposed to forest life in and around Guwahati and its denizens in order to instil conservation consciousness among them.
As a part of this special nature introduction campaign, Aaranyak in collab with Guwahati Wildlife Division organised the chapter six of this campaign in Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary.
Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary, being in proximity to Guwahati, is maintaining the ecological balance and acting as a natural buffer, providing a green cover around the city. The sanctuary helps in mitigating the urban heat island effect, improves air quality and offers a visual respite from urbanisation.
The presence of the sanctuary plays an instrumental role in protecting the water resources. A total of 16 nature enthusiasts joined the nature trail in the journey to understand the ecology and species diversity of the forest in this nature trail event organised on March 13.
Wasima Begum, Aaranyak’s environment facilitator, said that as of now there have been six “Nature’s Wonderland-a journey of curiosity” programmes that have been conducted, that have involved over 150 students and youths. Apart from Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary, the activities were conducted also at Assam State Zoo cum Botanical Garden, and Rani Reserve Forest of Assam.
Sagarika Pathak, a MSc student who attended one of the programmes stated, “I am a nature lover and I joined Aaranyak on this nature trail programme at the Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary under the guidance of an expert team of Aaranyak. Throughout the journey, Aaranyak’s experts helped us identify various species of plants, birds, insects, and small mammals we encountered along the way as well as educated us on their importance for environment and our wellbeing.
Furthermore, this special nature education programme also includes a number of other activities including “Find a tree”, learning sessions on bird watching, and several other games that teach more about nature.
The programme is supported by Wipro Earthian and LEA Associates South Asia Pvt Ltd (LASA) and is being led by Aaranyak’s senior official Jayanta Kumar Pathak. Aaranyak Official Pranab Goswami coordinates this event with environmental educator Wasima Begum.