To Sunday Shillong,
My heartiest congratulations to Sunday Shillong for carrying the outstanding story (Aquarist from Tura dreams big, July 15, 2018) highlighting the monumental contributions ofFarham T Sangma towards the home aquarium industry. The story is awe inspiring and stimulates us all regarding what raw passion of an individual could do to not only take home aquarium to new heights but also in contributing to a new industry and helping in employment generation in a small northeastern Indian state. I salute Sangma’s passion and his dream of expanding his franchise across NE India.
Through your esteemed newspaper, I would humbly request him to not only restrict his great innovations and ideas to home aquarium only but expand this towards public education and awareness for aquatic ecosystem conservation. Setting up such unique natural ecosystem-based aquariums in major corporate houses, central and federal government departments and agencies, schools, colleges and universities, public libraries, hospitals and nursing homes, senior citizen homes, malls and multiplexes can help building education and awareness towards conservation of aquatic life, including aquatic animal and plants. India being a treasure house of global biodiversity such attempts can help people to be more respectful and educated and proactive towards conservation issues.
Further, critically endangered aquatic species can be conserved in such artificial aquatic ecosystems with both public and private support. It can open up new areas of research on artificial conservation of aquatic life across India and serve as a global model for other countries.Sangma deserves to get government and international support for establishing fresh warm tropical and sub-tropical water aquariums for the purpose of conservation, public education and awareness as well as for promoting tourism. My best wishes to him for his monumental contribution to nature and sustainability.
Thanking you
Saikat Kumar Basu