Wildlife week celebrationskick off with cycle rally

Nagpur: The wildlife week celebrations got off to a flying start on Sunday with a cycle rally held to create awareness about protecting forests, wildlife, and the environment in general.The rally was flagged off by PCCF (HoFF) Shailesh Tembhurnikar. PCCF (wildlife) Maheep Gupta, APCCF P Kalyan Kumar, conservator (CF) A Srilakshmi, Pench field director Prabhu Nath Shukla, deputy conservator Bharat Singh Hada, district Rotary governor Asha Venugopal, forest union leader Ajay Patil and others were also present on the occasion.The rally, with over 150 participants, started from forest headquarters at Van Bhavan in Civil Lines and concluded at Zero Miles. On Monday a nature trail has been planned at Seminary Hills. A panel discussion on man-animal conflict is scheduled on October 3 at Trimurti Nagar and a tour for forest staff to Pench.An inter-school quiz contest will be held on October 4 besides a film show at Golden Leaf Banquet Hall, Trimurti Nagar. Media persons will get an educational tour of Pench.On October 5, a debate competition will be held on forest conservation vs. development. On October 6, a bird-watching event will be held at Ambazari Biodiversity Park, Hingna MIDC.Meanwhile, the wildlife week celebrations were also inaugurated at Bor Tiger Reserve in Wardha district by local MLA Pankaj Bhoyar.

Nature walks in reserve forests for students this wildlife week

The Goa forest department will organize guided nature and birding walks for 1,800 school and college students across the state to mark Goa Wildlife Week 2023. The walks have already begun and will be conducted by all divisions of the forest department. Additionally, there will be beach cleaning drives and nature awareness talks for villagers, panchayat members, and NGOs. Various competitions, including a drawing competition on butterflies and flowers of Goa, have also been organized in schools.

Forest sentinels evicted squatters and documented biodiversity

Fifty forest officials in Karnataka were honored for their achievements, including cracking down on encroachers and smugglers and documenting rare fauna. The Chief Minister urged them to motivate others and increase the state's forest cover from 22% to 33% to combat climate change and mitigate human-animal conflict. The Forest Minister emphasized the need to reclaim encroached land and increase coordination between departments. Meanwhile, a team is monitoring the fringes of a tiger reserve to prevent further incidents of human-animal conflict, and the National Green Tribunal has ordered an investigation into alleged forest land encroachment.