GUWAHATI:
Thirty-five forest guards from 10 Forest Divisions in Nagaland took part in the second batch of ‘training of forest guard for the conservation of hoolock gibbon in Nagaland’ from February 21-26.
The training was conducted by Aaranyak, a wildlife research organisation, in collaboration with the Nagaland Forest Department (NFD), with support from U S Fish and Wildlife Service, and held at State Environment and Forestry Training Institute (SEFTI), Dimapur.
Addressing the forest guards’ trainees, M Shakiba Yimchunger, Director of SEFTI, called the programme, a first-of-its-kind in Nagaland, which “will help them to build their capacity for the conservation of biodiversity”.
“This type of training is not found in the different forest schools or the forest institute,” he said.
The 10 forest divisions that took part in the programme included Dimapur, Kohima, Kiphire, Mokokchung, Longleng, Tuensung, Peren, Phek, Wokha and Zunheboto.
Among the trainers were Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar, Firoz Ahmed, Jimmy Borah and experts of Aaranyak, along with Arup Kumar Das, Jayanta Kumar Pathak and Mridu Paban Phukan from Wildlife Conservation and Study Centre (WCSC), to name a few.
Obed B Swu, Deputy Director of SEFTI, requested the trainees to learn and interact with different resource persons in a disciplined way as forest officers.
Dilip Chetry, Head of Primate Research and Conservation Division, Aaranyak, requested trainees use this training to “enhance their knowledge of the conservation of hoolock gibbon in particular, and biodiversity in general”, citing the ‘vulnerability status’ of the hoolock gibbons.
Present at the convocation were Yimchunger and T Aochuba, Director of Intanki National Park (INP).
Aochuba expressed hope that this training “will boost the capacity of the trainee in the conservation of biodiversity in the state”, and requested Aaranyak to help the forest department to achieve the same by capacity building of the forest staff, community and local youth.
Notably, the next batch of training will commence from April 18 to 23.