Wildlife week celebrated at Kisetong village

Wildlife week culminated on October 8, at Kisetong village, Kiphire which was organized by the department of environment, forest and climate change, Nagaland along with the district administration. 

Exhorting the gathering, Kisetong village, head GB Chumpise, highlighted that the village has been conserving their Community Reserves for several decades now and also that penalty of Rs. 5000 are being imposed on offenders.

Wildlife warden, Kiphire, Samom Khelen Singh, (IFS) stressed on the need for the public to continue their effort to conserve their forests and wildlife. He also apprised them of the protection provided to wildlife under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and the corresponding punishment for the offenders involved in wildlife crime.

EAC Kiphire, Longdiba Sangtam, highlighted that along with human progress, conservation and wildlife management should go hand in hand. For this, he also said that proper policies should be in place to enable communities achieve conservational success. He also encouraged and urged to village to continue its effort to protect wildlife.

Meanwhile, RFO, Kiphire wildlife division Lansothung Lotha, gave a presentation on “Our Life: Our Wildlife: Our Responsibilities”. In his session, he explained in brief on the importance of wildlife in general. He also highlighted the detrimental impact that our lifestyle and age old practice of hunting and jhum cultivation is having on wildlife. He also challenged the young and old alike to make it an aim that the younger generations will once again see the wildlife that has been pushed to local extinction from their area.

The occasion was marked by the screening of the national award winning documentary “Nagaland is Changing. But…” which is based on community based conservation efforts in Nagaland, citing the exemplary effort of Sendenyu and Sukhai villages. The documentary was made by The Energy and Research Institute (TERI) and Nagaland Forest Department.

Later, LED bulbs were also given to the village for use in the Church and Community Hall. Bookmarks with conservational messages written in the local dialect were also distributed to all the children as well as those present in the programme.

Kisetong is known for conserving an entire hill, which is a virgin forest, as their community reserve.