Dec

Forest Department officials to be trained in Kanpur

Kanpur, September 18 2014: The fifth session of Wildlife Trust of India’s Van Rakshak Project’s wildlife conservation and management training will take place in the Forestry Training Institute in Kanpur from September 18-28, 2014.

Concentrating on different aspects of wildlife conservation and management such as biodiversity, wildlife crime, nuances of the law the training will be conducted in three batches of 50 participants each. Captive animal managament and animal health will also be taught to the 150 forest and wildlife staff who will be coming from different PA’s of UP and will include range officers, foresters and forest guards.

“Uttar Pradesh has an extremely rich biodiversity with many endangered animals including the tiger, leopard, saras crane, Bengal florican etc forming a very crucial part of the ecosystem in the state. It becomes imperative to help the Forest Department conserve and protect wildlife to the best of their abilities. Such trainings go a long way in helping prepare them for any emergency that may come their way,” said Dr Krishnendu Mondal, Project Lead for the Van Rakshak Project.

The trainers will include Dr Krishnendu Mondal, Dr Aniruddha Majumder, Dr Saurabh Singhai from WTI, Arbind Jha and R.S. Sharath from Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), Advocate Rakesh Shrivastava, Advocate Sanjai Rai and R K Shukhla from the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department.

“The first training in FTI Kanpur was held in the beginning of 2014 and the last training was a few months ago. It is extremely crucial to keep having regular trainings for it not only helps in gauging the knowledge gleaned by the participants but also helps us strengthen their understanding of the concepts with repeated exposure to the particulars. For instance, UP unfortunately has a very high instance of human-carnivore conflict and having indepth understanding of wildlife laws as well as conservation and management techniques will only aid the FD officials in tackling the situation with ease and efficacy,” added Dr Mondal.