GUWAHATI, JUNE 7 /–/ A group of 80 individuals from Karbi tribe comprising Rong Asar (village headmen), community leaders, youth leaders and women participated in a day-long workshop on ‘Nature, Culture and Conservation of Nature and Natural Resource for Sustainable Village Development- Role of Rong Asar’ at Kohora Soil Conservation Department IB, in Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong landscape.
The discussions focused on the importance of organising an awareness programme in the villages for conservation of nature as well as natural resource management linking prevalent Karbi cultural practices to secure sustainable livelihood and future for the communities residing in the Kohora and Diring river basins of Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Landscape (KKL).
The workshop was organised by Aaranyak (www.aaranyak.org) recently in collaboration with Karbi Rong Asar Amei (KRAA), Karbi Cultural Society (KCS), Department of Arts & Culture, KAAC, for its community partners from (KKL), according to a Press communique.
The workshop shared plan and objective in organising village level conservation education awareness programme with collaborators, Rong Asar and community leaders across the 10 villages of Diring and Kohora river basin of KKL respectively.
The role of Rong Asar, Rong Amei and community leaders in extending support to making this awareness campaign a success was taken up during the workshop.
The Rong Asar and community leaders agreed to organise the village level conservation education awareness program. They will discuss with Kohora Area Protection Committee to finalise the dates and venues of the awareness education programme in the 10 villages.
Dilip Kathar, TCRO, Dept. of Arts & Culture, KAAC, highlighted ‘how Karbi traditional knowledge-based practices are connected with nature’, with some examples of bio-indicators as per traditional knowledge systems associated with weather prediction, with references to phenological changes of different native floral species, nesting behaviour of different local water birds, agricultural system etc. He stated that, ‘if nature destabilizes, our cultural system will be disturbed, so awareness drives in all the Karbi villages is important to create consciousness for Conservation of Nature.
Humsing Bey, President, KCS highlighted the issues of unsustainable harvesting and management of natural resources in different villages of Karbi Anglong, which has led to resource crisis in the villages.
Dhormo Teron, President, KRRA also shared about the inter-generational gap in sharing knowledge in the villages of today. He said with the declining population of the aged many of the traditional knowledge-based cultural practices are no longer in vogue in many villages.
Devinson Terrang, Chaiman of the Dolamara Biodiversity Management Committee, called for nurturing all living beings and sustain the Karbi cultural practice system. He also highlighted how Biodiversity Act can help in documentation and safeguarding traditional knowledge of communities.
Chandra Kanta Terang, Cultural Researcher, Composer and a renowned Karbi Singer also shared about the importance of organising the awareness campaign in the villages for sustainable natural resource management practices.
Dr. Firoz Ahmed of Aaranyak shared the grievance redressal mechanism process involved and the roles of Rong Asar in village development.
Jayanta Kumar Sarma, Senior Programme Coordinator of Aaranyak interacted with the participants on the concept and design of the education programme for the villagers.
Village representatives and Rong Asar of different villages of Karbi Anglong were also present to share their experience in the workshop.