'Rhino goes to School' : Assam's wildlife NGO's innovative campaign to boost rhino conservation
Guwahati, June 29 (UNI) The rhino goes to School in Assam! Sounds weird, but yes the rhinos are being taken to the schools to make the school children, particularly those living near the one-horned rhinos bearing areas in Assam, aware about the rhinos and to ensure better conservation of the species in future.
While the rhinos are literally not going to the schools, a wildlife conservation organization, Aaranyak, has been taking one of their most effective campaigns "Rhino Goes to School" to make the younger generations aware about the one-horned rhinos, the state animal of Assam.
Supported by David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, Aaranyak's main objective behind the program is to create awareness among students on Rhino conservation.
"From this program students will get more information about Rhinos, so that they can contribute to conservation in the future. The program includes power point presentation, Poster Presentation,
open interaction and open quiz sessions," said Arif Hussain, Programme Manager of Aaranyak.
"We believe that we must teach the children about conservation of environment and wildlife at tender age only. We are running this programme for last 15 years and we are happy to announce over a lakh school children are trained under this programme," said Arif.
He said that "Rhino Goes to School" programme does not only included awareness about the one horned rhinos. It also includes stories about real life experience on how we can contribute towards conservation, he said.
He said that the goal of the programme is to create awareness about rhino conservation and build future stewards for the conservation of this iconic species which is also the State Animal of Assam. "
Students were acquainted with basic knowledge on rhinos, their distribution and importance," said Arif who is the Manager, Rhino Research and Conservation Division of Aaranyak.
Aaranyak is a prominent wildlife and biodiversity conservation organisation in Assam.The UN framework convention on climate change have recently announced Aaranyak in partnership with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) as winner of its UN Lighthouse Activity Award 2014 for the successful implementation of the community-based flood early warning system in the Lakhimpur and Dhemaji Districts of Assam.
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