India’s 72^nd Independence Day was celebrated in the Wildlife Institute of India campus on 15^th August, 2018. Hoisting the national flag, Dr. V.B. Mathur, Director recalled the sacrifices of the countrymen during the freedom struggle that finally led to India’s Independence.

He said that Government of India had assigned several new responsibilities to the Institute for planning and implementing species recovery programmes in respect of 4 critically endangered wild animal species viz. Great Indian Bustard, Gangetic Dolphin, Dugong and Manipur Deer and the Institute had taken up the challenge of ‘field conservation’ in 14 States of the country, where these species occur. Similarly, under the National Mission for Clean Ganga the Institute has recently established a ‘Ganga Aqualife Conservation and Monitoring Centre’   in the campus and ‘Ganga Biodiversity Knowledge Centres’ have also been established at Narora and Sarnath in Uttar Pradesh; Sahibganj in Bihar and Bhagalpur in Jharkhand. He urged the Institute’s scientists, researchers, students and staff for their continued support in successfully meeting the various challenges and new responsibilities assigned to the Institute.

On this occasion, award and certificates were given to school children who had excelled in programmes organized during World Environment Day 2018

Painting Competition

Poster Making Competition

A certificate of appreciation was given to Shri Satish Kumar for providing excellent services in the Organic Solid Waste Management Programme initiated by the Institute in January, 2018.

The flag hoisting ceremony was followed by launching of Organic Solid Waste Management Programme in WII staff campus.

Award and certificates to school children who had excelled in programmes organized during World Environment Day 2018
Certificate of appreciation to Shri Satish Kumar for providing excellent services in the Organic Solid Waste Management Programme   Launching of Organic Solid Waste Management Programme in WII staff campus

The ENVIS Resource Partner at Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun is organizing Certificate Course on Nature Interpretation for Rural Youth under Green Skill Development Programme of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India at Manas Tiger Reserve, Assam from 8-28 July, 2018. This course for the youth from the villages in the proximity of the Protected Area, is of 3-week duration to empower them so that they could enhance their socio-economic status and conserve biodiversity. Altogether 26 youths are participating and more than 10 resource persons from diverse fields like Scientists, Doctors, Professors, Tourist Operators and Protected Area Managers are providing inputs.  The trained person will be a nature guide with knowledge of biodiversity, conservation and good communication skills. He/ She can also be an independent nature guide/ naturalist in his local area or could be part of hospitality industry. The trained person will be able to collect baseline data from the field. This will enable them to be part of forest department, wildlife research NGO's and EIA teams etc.

On behalf of the PCCF(Wildlife), Assam, the Field Director of Manas Tiger Reserve inaugurated the course and interacted with the participants.

On the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity on 22^nd May, 2018 a workshop “Ganga and its Biodiversity: Developing a Road Map for Habitat and Species Conservation” was jointly organized by NMCG-WWF, in New Delhi. During this workshop, the Chief Guest Hon’ble Cabinet Minister of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Shri Nitin Jairam Gadkari released two publications prepared by the Ganga Aqaulife Conservation Monitoring Centre, Wildlife Institute of India i.e. “Macro Fauna of the Ganga River: Status and Conservation of Select Species”, and “Ganga River – State of Biodiversity at a Glance”.

The Hon’ble Minister also launched the database of Ganga Prahari - the cadre of self-motivated and trained volunteers from five Ganga States. This database has been hosted at the NMCG’s website (nmcg.nic.in) and will be managed from the Wildlife Institute of India. This cadre has been created under the community participation model by community based conservation component of ‘Biodiversity Conservation and Ganga Rejuvenation’ project.  This database includes personal information of all Ganga Praharis such as age, gender, educational qualification, occupation, skills and interests besides expedient details of their contact. Details on the number of activities such as awareness meetings, training workshops conducted for Ganga Praharis and onsite activities conducted by these Ganga Praharis have also been listed. All the organizations associated with National Mission for Clean Ganga can access this information through NMCG and WII website.

Shri U.P Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation; Shri Rajeev Ranjan Mishra, Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga, Shri Rajiv Kishore, Executive Director (Administration), National Mission for Clean Ganga; Shri Ravi Singh, CEO, WWF-India, and other eminent policy planners, scientists and conservationists representing NMCG, WWF, TSA, CEE graced the occasion. About 40 Ganga Mitras and Ganga Praharis from five Ganga River states, were also present on the occasion. The project personnel of the ‘Biodiversity Conservation and Ganga Rejuvenation’ also participated in the workshop.