Wildlife Department organizes nature walk in Nandni Sanctuary

JAMMU, May 14: Department of Wildlife Protection today organized a nature walk cum trekking expedition from Nandni old tunnel to Bail Khad in Nandni Wildlife Sanctuary.

The programme was part of ongoing campaign under mission LIFE.

More than 200 participants from various districts representing students, scholars, academicia, nature enthusiasts, local youth and PRI members participated in the event. Before the formal flag off, Suresh Kumar Gupta, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), administered LIFE pledge to all the participants. He also briefed the participants about the essence of LIFE and appealed to all to make small changes in daily life style like taking cloth bag for shopping and not to bring home anything in polythene bag, cleaning water bodies, car pooling, use of bicycle, spreading awareness about LIFE to contribute in reducing environmental degradation, climate change mitigation and reducing carbon foot prints. Cloth bags were also distributed among participants during the event.

The trek started at 10.00 AM and was completed in about four hours. The event concluded at 2.30 PM.

During the trek, the participants enjoyed the full view of enroute forests, the streams, bowlies, biodiversity, ascent and descent of the trek.

Rakesh Abrol, DFO Research, explained to the participants about biodiversity along the trek and its importance.

Guldev Raj from Himalayan Avian highlighted about bird species in the area. He participated along with his NGO workers. Sarpanches, Kuldeep Sharma and Siraj Din along with Panches Noor Jahan and  Ram Paul of the area lauded the department for organizing the programme and assured their support for more such events. 

The Department of Wildlife Protection has identified and mapped 18 trek routes in various Wildlife Protected areas of J&K.

The department is organizing trekking programmes regularly on these treks. The Eco-Tourism promotion initiative is aimed at raising awareness about Wildlife Conservation and making people aware about rich biodiversity and natural heritage of J&K. The programme also aims to enhance livelihood of local communities.

The programme was organized by different wings of the Forest Department and coordinated by Wildlife Warden, Jammu and his team.