Guwahati, Dec 11: Womenfolk of Tanti Pather, Konwabam and Kamargaon villages in Dibrugarh district of Assam put up an exhibition of high-quality handloom products and other home-made edibles prepared by them at Tanti Pather that reflected an encouraging outcome of Aaranyak and British Asian Trust’s initiative to wean away villagers from their dependency on forest-based products in the greater interest of conservation of wildlife habitats.

The village women exhibited  a wide range of products that included  handloom products like traditional Assamese mekhela chador, eri shawl, gamosa, stoles besides varieties of pickle and baked items before the visiting British Asian Trust officials, Belinda Stewart Cox and  Auro Shashwat and Aaranyak team comprising senior scientist Dr. Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar, senior conservation biologist Dr. Alolika Sinha, Zakir Islam Bora, Bidisha Borah, Ezaz Ahmed, Dhantu Gogoi, Jiyaur Rahman, along with village champions Monuj Chetia and Rajib Gogoi on December 7.

The villagers have been supported by biodiversity conservation organisation Aaranyak (www.aaranyak.org) and British Asian Trust under a project sponsored by Darwin Initiative (UK Aid) with alternative livelihood options so that they stop depending on forest resources to supplement their income and thereby extend cooperation towards the efforts for coexistence with wild elephants.

Thirty-five beneficiaries under the initiative exhibited their products while more than 70 people participated in the event that also featured an interactive session between beneficiaries and the officials of British Asian Trust and Aaranyak.