Guwahati, Sept 27: Sustainable management of Kohora River which is like the lifeline for the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong landscape, was the focus of celebration of this year’s the World Rivers Day organised by the local community and local institutions of Kohora River Basin in Assam namely, Kaziranga Chitrakala Vidyalaya, Hatipathor Madir Parichalona Samiti and Department of Soil Conservation, Kohora.
The day was celebrated at Hatipathor, Kohora, Karbi Anglong which featured an art contest for school students. The World Rivers Day is celebrated on every fourth Sunday of September to raise public awareness and encourage sustainable management of rivers, according to a Press communique.
The event was organised with an objective to facilitate the local people residing by the Kohora River to share their memories with Kohora River and discuss its future and sustainable management where 35 persons from different communities participated.
The celebration started with a cleanliness drive of Kohora River at Hatipathor area in the early morning. All the participants then gathered at Soil Conservation Inspection Bungalow for a memory sharing and discussion event chaired by Protik Borah. Swapan Nath, local conservationist briefly explained the primary objective and scheduled activities of the event.
Based on long-term monitoring of water quality and discharge from 2018 to 2023, regions leading biodiversity conservation organisation, Aaranyak shared its findings and discussed the importance of the Kohora River and its watershed.
In continuation with the discussion all the concerned persons shared their memories on Kohora River which includes historic water volume, change in water quality, diversity of fish species and different other benefits/services received from Kohora River were highlighted during the discussion.
Dhrubo Jyoti Saha sharing his view, suggested writing to the concerned SDO Civil and appraising the official about the present condition of the Kohora River and develop sustainable management plan of the river. Ranjan Rajkhowa, Head Teacher of Sankardev Sishu Niketan, Kohora shared his views on river and people highlighting socio-economic and cultural linkage of a society and their dependence on the river. He also shared the importance of awareness activities among young students to understand the importance of rivers.
Looking into the need of sustainable management of the Kohora River, an eleven member committee has been formed by the participants which will be chaired by Dairy Prashad Upadhaya, which has vowed to create awareness and ensure that the Kohora River continue to flow with its natural quality and quantity of water.
Swapan Nath also described the importance of hill streams flowing from Karbi Anglong hills and their contribution in the Kohora River and the people living along with it.
To celebrate the River Day with the students, an art competition on the Kohora River was organised for the students of the Kaziranga Chitrakala Vidyalaya and prizes were distributed to the winners of the competition.
The event was conducted by Swapan Nath and Rehan Ali from Kohora with support from Aaranyak team based at Kohora.