Our Correspondent
MOKOKCHUNG, MAY 7
A seminar on forest and wildlife conversation besides a take on the sanitation drive Swaach Bharat Mission (SBM) was conducted at Kobulong subdivision under Mokokchung district on Friday. The event was organized by the Asetkong Kaketshir Telongjem Mungdang (AKTM).
The district forest officer of Mokokchung, TN Jamir and the chairman of the SBM, M Bendangnukshi Longkumer, were the resource persons for the event.
TN Jamir said that the Asetkong range, Langpangkong range and Milak river areas of the district were one of the richest biodiversity hotspots in Asia.
However, he lamented, even though nature has provided abundant forest and wildlife people continue to destroy nature thereby causing ‘environmental imbalance’ as being witnessed now. The speaker also highlighted the ‘unscientific means of coal mining,’ logging and hunting in the area. He warned that scientists and naturalists had predicted that if the trend continued, nature would ‘unleash its wrath’ on humans by 2050. ‘The catastrophe will be our creation,’ he said.
In this connection, Jamir encouraged the village council members at the seminar to start taking steps to protect and conserve plant and animal life.
Also, the chairman of SBM, M Bendangnukshi Longkumer underscored the concept and objectives of the Swaach Bharat Mission. He pointed out the various activities being undertaken by civil organizations in the district such as the inter-ward cleanliness drive competition besides youth-driven initiatives ‘without depending on others.’
Longkumer encouraged village councils at the seminars to create awareness about the mission and initiate activities in their villages to make the sanitation program ‘successful by 2019.’
During the program, extra assistant commissioner of Kobulong, Trongdiba Tongpi, said in his short speech that hunting had reduced the wealth of local wildlife of the area. He said that wildlife in the area had ‘shrunk too much’ within the span of 10 years. The EAC urged the village councils to implement laws ‘without any prejudice.’
