In continuation to our earlier post about the Chilika lake, a designated "Destination Flyways" by United Nations World Tourism organization, here is another good news, not only for the promotion of wildlife tourism in Orissa, but also it is going to give a good push to protect the endangered birds. In its bid to take bird conservation in the State to a new level, Wild Orissa has launched an ambitious initiative which aims at building a ‘young army’ of students who can empathize with birds and work for their conservation as part of their day-to-day lives.
The programme, ‘Giving Flight to Young Minds - My school, My Bird’, launched under Wild Orissa’s (a local wildlife NGO) Wild Birds Conservation Programme encourages school students to talk about birds, identify the species and start an interaction on their habitats.
The initiative will focus on forest fringe areas and rural areas of Odisha. “We will source high resolution photographs from photographers and bird lovers of the State who will share their images for this conservation initiative,” Chief Spokesperson of Wild Orissa Kulamani Deo said.
Each school will be evaluated based on the initiatives taken by them over a six-month period. Subsequently, Wild Orissa will hold an interactive session for selected schools from a district.
“By this, we will attempt to link birds with their ecology, enabling children to appreciate the need for natural habitat conservation,” Deo said.
Special emphasis will be given to rare and endangered species. A total of 400 schools located in Khurda, Nayagarh, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Puri, Dhenkanal, Angul, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Jajpur and Ganjam are targeted to be brought under the conservation programme. Its implementation will start from November.
Chief Wildlife Warden SS Srivastava formally unveiled the State-level launch of the event here recently. Eminent Ornithologist Dr UN Dev, CCF (Wildlife) HS Bist, members from Wildlife Society of Orissa, Nature and Wildlife Conservation Society of Orissa, Ruchika Social Service Organisation, Birds of Orissa and Kalinga Birds, Chairman of Wild Orissa Krushna Chandra Swain, Vice-chairman Nanda Kishore Bhujabal and programme coordinator Dilip Kumar Nayak were present.
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