GUWAHATI:
The Nagaland forest department in collaboration with an Assam-based NGO organised a capacity building workshop for its frontline staff to aid in the conservation of wildlife, with particular focus on the rare and threatened species – the hoolock gibbons, from May 11.
The week-long workshop has a curriculum on various ecological and conservation subjects, ranging from concepts on biodiversity in the Northeast to primate conservation. The workshop was organised in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The workshop was inaugurated by M Shakiba Yimchunger, director of State Environment and Forestry Training Institute (SEFTI), who welcomed the trainees from Nagaland and said, “This type of training is unique in Nagaland and it is our moral duty to ensure the species survival for the future.”
A total of 25 forest guards attending the workshop are from Intanki National Park, Nagaland Zoological Park, Dimapur Wildlife Division, Dimapur, Phek, Mon, Zunuheboto, Peren, Wokha, and Tunsang Forest Division, and WPO Kohima of Nagaland.
This is the third batch to receive such intensive training, and Dilip Chetry, head of the Primate Research and Conservation Division of Aaranyak, welcomed all the trainees and appealed to the participants to make use of the workshop to its fullest potential.
Hoolock gibbons, which are primarily found on the southern bank of the Dibang – Brahmaputra system and the forested landscape of Nagaland, are facing extinction threats in the form of habitat fragmentation and loss and hunting.