The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) celebrated Wildlife Week from 2 to 8 October across our project sites in India. Various activities that focused on the need to save India’s natural heritage were organised in collaboration with local organisations, forest departments, educational institutions and communities.

Uttar Pradesh

Our team working with the Sarus Crane Habitat Securement Project in Maharajganj organised a painting competition for local children at the National Intermediate College. Additionally, they hosted a rally involving students, the forest department and villagers.  An awareness program around the treatment and prevention of snake bites was also conducted through the platform. Around 40 school children from Scout & Guide and teachers of C.V.N. Science Intermediate College participated in the celebrations.

The WTI Terai Tiger Project team also organised an art competition at Bharatpur Composite School in Pilibhit to celebrate Wildlife Week 2024. The theme of the competition was ‘Nature and Wildlife.’ A total of 120 students from the primary and junior sections participated in the event. This was followed by a sensitisation session on wildlife conservation and human-wildlife conflict mitigation for the entire school. This included a screening of WTI’s short film Kinara and an interactive session with the students. Additionally, activity books aimed at educating school children about wildlife, their ecology, and human-wildlife conflict mitigation were distributed among 200 students.

Bihar

The Valmiki Recovery Project team organised community events in the villages of Dhumatand-Jasauli. The team talked about the various means necessary to co-exist with big cats like tigers and leopards, that share the landscape.

Along the same lines, our Gandak Gharial Recovery Project team celebrated Wildlife Week with students of local schools situated along the Gandak River basin.

Gujarat

WTI celebrated Wildlife Week 2024 in Gujarat with a specially curated workshop for 120 frontline forest officers undergoing training at Forest Training Centre (FTC)-Kakrapar, Dept. of Forests, Govt. of Gujarat under the Pan India Whale Shark Recovery Project. This workshop was hosted at the campus of FTC-Kakrapar with an aim to educate and sensitise the frontline forest trainees and inculcate awareness among them about conservation of coastal and marine protected wildlife. Team WTI shared the learnings and best practices from nationally awarded and internationally recognised conservation project on Whale Shark that is  jointly supported by the Gujarat Forest Department and Tata Chemicals Ltd since past two decades along the coast of Gujarat.

Arunachal Pradesh

The Eaglenest Forest Department in collaboration with the Shergaon Forest Division organised a three-day nature training program for school students in Shergaon. The event brought together various organisations from Eagle Nest and Shergaon, and was hosted by Garung Thuk, a local NGO. Our team conducted two sessions, which included an introduction to mammals and a workshop on camera trapping.

Additionally, 25 students from the Government middle school of Jolly-Lanka in Pakke landscape, along with 5 students from the nearby Acharyakulam-Patanjali school, participated in an earthen pot painting competition organised by Pakke Tiger Reserve and WTI. Presentations included slideshows about bears and tigers.

Our team organised a Wildlife Week celebration at Saikhowa Higher Secondary School, in Dhola, where over 350 students participated in painting and essay writing competitions.

Kerala

On the 4th day of Wildlife Week, an awareness session was conducted at the Anchuthengu fish market for local vendors and the fishing community. The session was led by Ajith Shagumukam, a field attendant with WTI Pan India Whale Shark Conservation Project. The primary objective of the program was to enhance awareness regarding the conservation of the whale shark and highlighting the initiatives undertaken by WTI to protect the species. Anchuthengu, located in Thiruvananthapuram, is a prominent fishing village where numerous vendors from various parts of Kerala gather to purchase fish. Over 100 members of the community participated in this event. In collaboration with VST Industries, the team also organised a drawing competition for students at the government L.P. School in Srayikkadu, Kollam, on October 7, 2024.

Meanwhile, our Mangrove restoration team in Kannur collaborated with the Taliparamba Forest Range officials to host an event attended by 15 participants, including range forest officers, section forest officers, beat forest officers, and forest watchersOn 8^th October another event featured awareness sessions on mangroves led by Vimal Lakshamanan (WTI field officer), a session on birds led by expert Sasidaran Manekkara, and a session on butterflies led by Sri Nisha, an expert in butterfly identification. The event was inaugurated by Sri Padmanabhan Master, Director of the Society for Environment Education in Kerala (SEEK).

West Bengal

TheWTI team in collaboration with the West Bengal Forest Department  organised film screenings that showcase the importance of tigers to the Sundarban landscape in the newly inaugurated Prakritishalas. The event was led by the Tiger Scout volunteers from SEC II.

Odisha

On October 4, 2024, WTI in collaboration with the Collection Initiative for Social Solidarity (CISS) and the State Forest Department, hosted two consultative meetings at Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary and Saptasajya. These crucial elephant corridors in Dhenkanal district have increasingly become popular picnic spots and photoshoot locations, leading to improper garbage disposal, which poses a serious threat to the local elephant population.

As part of the Wildlife Week celebrations, a cycle rally was held on October 5, 2024, at Dandimal High School, where 25 students participated in a 5-kilometre walk to raise awareness aabout elephant conservation. Anawareness session on elephant conservation and the importance of wildlife corridors was also held at Dandimal High School, led by Headmaster Mr. Prasant Kumar Nayak, a Mr. Bijay Kr Dash, President of Collection Initiative for Social Solidarity (CISS), Mr. Aurobindo, consultant for WTI’s Gaj Utsav Odisha, and Mr. Subhash Chandra Sahoo, Forester, Angul Division. This was followed by film screenings on wildlife conservation further educate and engage the local community.

Jammu and Kashmir

Up in the northern state of Kashmir, WTI’s Kashmir Markhor and Hangul Recovery Project teams celebrated Wildlife Week by participating in the inaugural session organised by the Department of Wildlife Protection (DWP), J&K, on the 2nd of October in Dachigam National Park (NP). The event involved local schoolchildren from Srinagar and DWP officials, including the Regional Wildlife Warden and various division wardens in the Kashmir region.