Mokokchung, March 9 (EMN): A two-day training on “Wildlife law enforcement and counter wildlife trafficking and biodiversity conservation” for Forest and Police personnel was held on March 7 and 8 at the conference hall of the Conservator of Forests complex, Mokokchung.
The training was jointly organised by the Nagaland Forest department, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India, Nagaland State Biodiversity Board (NSBB) in which a total of 50 personnel from Forest and Police attended the training.
The inaugural programme was chaired by Dr. Sentitula, Divisional Forest Officer of Mokokchung, wherein she highlighted the status of purchased land/ community reserve/ protected forest of the district. She also laid emphasis on building the capacity of the frontline staff in terms of legal know-how to protect and conserve and at the same time tackle wildlife crime especially cross border trafficking of wildlife products.
Shashank Pratap Singh, additional deputy commissioner of Mokokchung and guest of honour, has highlighted sustainable wildlife management through protection and conservation of population and habitat.
Satya Prakash Tripathi, retired PCCF and HoFF and chairman of Nagaland State Biodiversity Board (NSBB), has emphasised on the need for creating awareness among stakeholders for conservation of natural resources along with combating wildlife crimes.
Dev Prakash Bankhwal, retired PCCF of Wildlife and chief wildlife warden, Assam and the team leader of WCS India, spoke on creating a sense of ownership towards natural resources and equipping the frontline staff to tackle crimes.
Some of the topics which were covered during the training included wildlife trafficking, wildlife protection act 1972, protected areas, community reserves and biodiversity conservation, enforcement of wildlife and biodiversity laws and investigation of wildlife crimes.
Similar programme was also conducted at Jubilee Memorial Hall, CBLT Mission Compound in Tuensang town on March 9.
A total of 30 participants from the Police and Forest department attended the training.
Speeches were delivered by the deputy commissioner of Tuensang, Kumar Ramnikant, NSBB chairman Satya Prakash Tripathi, DP Bankhwal, Rishik Dutta Gupta, and Shubra Sotie from WCS-India.