Aaranyak, a Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO), recognised by DSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, based in Guwahati and working for nature conservation in Northeast India has come up with a series of online webinars which started from 20th April 2020 onwards. The series titled ‘Eco Talk’ features various topics related to biodiversity and environmental issues, conservation science, endangered species conservation, technological applications in the field of research etc.
Dr. Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, Secretary General and CEO of Aaranyak says – Eco Talk is an initiative by Aaranyak to best utilize Aaranyak’s manpower resources as well as domain expertise for education and awareness towards nature conservation during the period of lockdown as a result of COVID-19 crisis. While the free webinars are offered almost on daily basis during the lockdown period, Aaranyak plans to continue this in the future on a periodic basis.
Eco Talks have been planned as a medium of online learning and experience sharing for people particularly the students who are interested to know more about this area of work, says Udayan Borthakur, Wildlife biologist and Head of Media Production & Communications Division of Aaranyak. Online platforms such as Zoom have been used for this purpose and the series of webinars is being coordinated by the Media Production & Communications Division of Aaranyak.
Till date, webinars on topics related to rhino conservation, human elephant conflict mitigation, climate change and northeast, counting tigers for conservation etc. have successfully been conducted by a number of speakers, namely Dr. Dr. Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, Dr. Bibhuti Prasad Lahkar, Dr. Partha Jyoti Das and Dr. M Firoz Ahmed. Some of the upcoming webinars in this series include topics such as conservation genetics, GIS applications, species features such as Golden langur, Greater Adjutant etc. to be delivered by speakers including Udayan Borthakur, Arup Das, Dr. Dilip Chetry and Dr. Purnima Devi Barman of Aaranyak.
The total limit of participant in each webinar is hundred. Anyone interested to join such webinars can follow Aaranyak’s official Facebook page as well as website (www.aaranyak.org ) for further details.