Biodiversity workshop in Udalguri

A field base biodiversity workshop for college students,HoD of Botany and Zoology departments of colleges,officials of environmental NGOs of Darrang and Udalguri districts was held in JFMC man made forest at Bhairabkunda near Assam-Bhtan-Arunachal border meet point on September 14 with day long activities.The activities were organized by ATREE (Ashoka Trust For Research in Ecology and the Environment) in association with Aryabhatta Science Centre (ASTEC,Assam),Udalguri district branch and Udalguri district administration.The inaugural ceremony of the workshop was held at the Conference Hall of the Deputy Commissioner,Udalguri at 10 am.Jayanta Das of ASC,Udalguri welcomed all the distinguished guests and participants from Darrang and Udalguri districbefore explaining the need for the launching of the Assam Biodiversity Portal (ABP) by ATREE.Sadhana Hojai,Deputy Commissioner,Udalguri inaugurated the workshop.Thanking ATREE and Aryabhatta Science Centres of ASTEC for organizing the workshop in Udalguri district,she said that students must must be involved in the biodiversity conservation activities so as to encourage them to explore undiscovered species of flora and fauna of both Darrang and Udalguri district.BJ Manta,ADC,Udalguri; MK Sarma,DFO,Dhansiri Forest Division,Udalguri;Dipen Boro,vice president,ABSU state committee;Dr.Rohit Daimary,HoD,Botany,Udalguri College etc also attended the inaugural ceremony. Rohit George,NE Coordinator of ATREE  conducted the technical session both in the conference hall and in the JFMC forest in Bhairabkunda. Teachers and students from Mangaldai College,Tangla College,Udalguri College,Udalguri HSS  participated in the technical field activities under the supervision of Rohit George of ATREE and convener of Assam Biodiversity Portal.He demonstrated how to upload photos of any species of flora and fauna in the ABP website for the benefit of all.Leena Saikia (Mangaldai College),Anima Bhuyan Barua (HoD,Zoology,Tangla College),Sarojini Talukdar (HoD,Botany,Tangla College) assisted Rohit George in the field activities.Ismail Daimary,Secretary, JFMC,Bhairabkunda spoke on the history of the picturesque  man made forest with an area of 5500 bigha lands touching Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh.With more than 15 lakhs of well grown tree saplings planted by its members since 2007.He said that wild elephants, leopards,deer,pythons,wild boar etc have started taking shelter in the JFMC bringing a ray of hope amid destruction of forest and wildlife in Assam.Conservation activists and senior journalists Bhargab Kumar Das,Mayukh Goswami and Ganesh Dutta (from Darrang) and wildlife activist Nerkhang Khaklari,Debashis Phukan,Raj D Mushahary  etc (Udalguri) also attended.BJ Manta,ADC Udalguri distributed the certificates of participation at the end.