Guwahati (Assam) [India] May 31 : The Regional Office Guwahati Pollution Control Board of Assam (PCBA) joined hands with Guwahati Wildlife Division of Assam, and the region's leading biodiversity conservation organisation 'Aaraynak and Parijat Academy' to organise two cleanliness drives and sensitisation programmes under Mission LiFE ( Lifestyle for Environment).
The event was organised around Deepor Beel- a Ramsar site in Guwahati Assam, which was attended by Engineer Gokul C Bhuyan, Additional Chief Environmental Engineer, HI, Regional Office Assam, Pollution Control Board, representatives from Aaraynak, officials from Guwahati Wildlife Division, and students and teachers from Parijat Academy, Guwahati.
The Deepor Beel, located around 10 km southwest of Guwahati, spans across 900 hactare area, is considered the largest wetland ecosystem in the Brahmaputra River valley.
The wetland is primarily fed by the Kalmani and Basistha rivers, which carry sediment and nutrients into the Beel, and thus supporting a rich biodiversity. It provides an excellent habitat and nesting sites to resident birds and harbours an impressive diversity of winter migratory birds.
It is a crucial elephant corridor and provides a livelihood to the local communities residing around its fringes.
During the event, Bhuyan emphasized the need to adopt sustainable practices such as drip irrigation and talked about the importance of water conservation.
He mentioned how a recent official raid jointly by PCBA and GMC helped seized around 10 tonnes of single-use plastic.
While, Aaranyak's Madhumita Borthakur, a senior GIS Analyst, provided insights on the need to organise such an outreach programme. This was followed by a Mission LiFE pledge by all the participants. Thereafter, the cleanliness drive was undertaken around the Deepor Beel watchtower, which resulted in a collection of four sacks full of plastic waste. These wastes will be disposed of properly by the PCBA.
Parijat Academy's Seuti Teron shared the inspiring story of Parijat Academy founded by Uttom Teron, who is a recipient of the CNN IBN Real Heroes Award in 2002, and extended a heartfelt thank you for organising the event.
The second event in the series was organised at the 10th mile, Khanapara Range of Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary which was joined in by Adarsh Hindi Vidyapeeth High School.
The programme sensitised the students, local youths and other representatives of the local community to practice a sustainable and harmonious lifestyle around protected areas.
The programme was presided over by Bhuyan, in the presence of Mahendra Lal Deb, Principal of the school, forest officials from Khanapara Range and Avishek Sarkar from Aaranyak.
The cleanliness drive was carried out in and around the Khanapara range by the students, members of local communities, officials from the forest department, PCBA and Aaranyak.
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