GUWAHATI:Authorities and stakeholders met here on Sunday to discuss the promised conservation works of World Heritage Sites in Assam.
The move came following the recent Indian victory for Manas National Park (MNP) at the 35th Session of the World Heritage Committee(WHC).
”The removal of the ‘in Danger’ tag off Manas Wildlife Sanctuary was a new beginning,” said Jagdish Kishwan, Additional Director General(Wildlife), Government of India.
”Manas has a lot of potential for growth in terms of area extension, developing unique wildlife, and tourism.
All stakeholders specially the local communities have to continue working together for Manas and other wildlife areas in Assam including the World Heritage Site at Kaziranga,” he added.
Participants in the meeting included officials from the Central government, Assam Forest Department and representatives of NGOs besides the International Fund for Animal Welfare-Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI).
Discussions were held to take actions on the WHC decisions with respect to Manas and Kaziranga.
”Removal of the ‘in Danger’ tag from Manas was conditional. Besides, the WHC had also raised certain issues regarding Kaziranga.
All the issues need to be addressed. At this meeting, we tried to bring in all stakeholders for a unified cross-sectoral approach to address these concerns,” said Suresh Chand, Chief Wildlife Warden, Assam.
Diverse issues, including fast flowing funding mechanism for conservation activities in Manas, development of a comprehensive tourism management plan, species recovery programmes, implementation of the integrated ecosystem-based monitoring system, enhancing stakeholdership of local communities, trans-boundary cooperation with Bhutan to declare Manas a ‘Peace Park’ and extension of MNP boundary as per the Greater Manas concept were discussed.
”Both the Centre and the state government has taken note of the conditions set by the UNESCO regarding Manas. This meeting marks the beginning of the future activities which will not only help improve the individual World Heritage Sites but facilitate conservation at the landscape level so that the adjoining areas get the benefit of Manas’ UNESCO status,”said Vivek Menon, Executive Director, WTI.
The participants also discussed the proposed upgradation of the National Highway 37 that runs along the eastern boundary of the Kaziranga National Park.(UNI)
