Guwahati, Aug 13: Community members, youths and forest staff from Assam and Meghalaya played three competitive and entertaining football matches on the occasion of World Elephant Day on Tuesday in front of over thousand people from villages on both sides Assam and Meghalaya boundary, in the playground of Borjhara High School in Lakhipur block of Goalpara district in Assam.
Goalpara Forest Division of Assam Forest Department, Wildlife Divisions of East and West Garo Hills of Meghalaya Forest Department and premier biodiversity conservation organization Aaranyak collaborated to organize the Elephant Cup Football Tournament for the third consecutive year to mark World Elephant Day meant for conservation of the gentle giant.
The collaborative initiative under the aegis of Goalpara Forest Division, is driven by the urgent need for facilitating coexistence along the inter-state boundary areas of Assam and Meghalaya with wild elephants through people-oriented mitigation efforts.
The football matches supported by Darwin Initiative, British Asian Trust, and Elephant Family, were played in presence of a host of forest department officials from both the states, officials and field executives of Aaranyak, members of Elephant Conservation Network (ECN) and the community.
The significance of playing football for elephant conservation and coexistence was well highlighted by the presence of senior forest officials including Central Assam’s Conservator of Forest Sunnydeo Indradeo Chaudhury his counterpart from Meghalaya (Garo Hills) M J Sangma; Goalpara DFO Tejas Mariswamy and his counterparts from Meghalaya Arpiush Ch Sangma, Rimse Sangma and Rupankar Marak, Meghalaya’s ACF B K Lohar, Meghalaya Forest Range Officers Anneie Valentina, Dokchi R Marak, Lakhipur (Assam) Range Officer Dharmendra Das, Goalpara (Assam ) Range Officer Khalilur Rahman.
Goalpara District Sports Officer Satyanath Das extended exemplary cooperation to facilitate the footballing event especially the most exciting match between Under-19 teams from Assam and Meghalaya.
Aaranyak’s Deputy Executive Director and conservation scientist Dr Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar led the from the front in organsing the event with help of team members Anjan Baruah, Abhijit Baruah, Anushka Saikia Choudhury, Jyotibrata Mahanta, Swapan Das, Nipul Chakma, Monjit Das, Subhash Ch Rabha, Rupam Goyari, Ripunjoy Kumar Nath and Rohit Chandra Nath. Anushka Saikia Choudhury anchored the entire programme including felicitation and prize distribution ceremony.
Addressing gathering Goalpara DFO Tejas Mariswamy said, “The 3rd edition of Elephant Cup tournament is expected to boost coordination between the people from Assam and Meghalaya (Garo Hills) for facilitating coexistence with elephants through HEC mitigation. Besides, if we can continue with the tournament, it will help local players to hone their skills.”
Arpiush Sangma, DFO, Garo Hills while lauding Goalpara Forest Division and Aaranyak for organizing the soccer event, highlighted that 60 per cent of the entire Asian Elephant population is found in India and the gentle giant now faces problems due to changing habitat pattern, which can’t be solved only through technical skill.
“Sporting event like Elephant Cup football will smoothen differences in HEC mitigation in inter-state border areas and save the elephants,” he added.
Dr Bibhuti Lahkar underscored that the three consecutive episodes of Elephant Cup Football Tournament since 2023, gained discernible popularity among the people from the inter-state boundary landscapes in Goalpara and Garo Hills and thereby raised mass awareness on HEC mitigation efforts.
He said besides mitigation efforts, there was need for cooperation from Forest Department for improvement of habitats for elephants.
The first football match was played between community teams from Assam and Meghalaya and won by the Assam team. The second match between teams from Assam Forest Department and Meghalaya Forest Department was won by the Assam team and the third and most entertaining match between U-19 teams from Assam and Meghalaya were won by the Assam team.
The prizes were distributed by the senior forest officials from both Meghalaya and Assam. Assam U-19 team captain Pankaj Rabha was awarded the best player’s trophy of the tournament this year.