GUWAHATI: They were born and brought up in villages located at the periphery of the famed Kaziranga National Park (KNP) on Assam, home to one-horned India rhinoceros. The irony is that most of them have not got an opportunity to undertake a sarafi inside the enchanting wild of the national park.
For this group of school children, the much-visited Kaziranga National Park (KNP) remained a myth till Sunday when they were taken on a jeep safari inside the wildlife protection area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
These school children were taken on a Jeep Safari inside the national park under an innovative conservation-oriented programme called ‘Friends of Rhino’ which has been conceptualised and implemented by Aaranyak with support from David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation (DSWF) and Kaziranga National Park (KNP) authority.
The Friends of Rhino has been put on the roll with the objective to create awareness and positive thoughts about rhino conservation among young school children through Kaziranga Safari and interaction with nature conservation workers and experts who have been working in the field. School children residing in the fringe of Kaziranga National Park, who have never visited the sanctuary, are going to be benefited under the new programme.
In the first programme of Friends of Rhino which was organized at Bagori Range of Kaziranga National Park (KNP), 18 students from Kaliabor Higher Secondary School and Kalyanashram Junior College, Silghat participated. The programme was set on the roll by Pradeep Goswami, Range Officer, Burapahar Range of the KNP.
Aarnayak’s Senior Project Officer, Arif Hussain informed that the students were engaged in hours-long interaction with wildlife conservation volunteers, experts and senior forest officials on various topics related to the nature and its resources and the need for conservation of fauna and flora especially the precious one-horned rhinoceros in Kaziranga Park.
The DSWF has supported Aaranyak to launch this programme as this has the goal to sport future conservation workers among the young school children living around Kaziranga National Park (KNP).
