KAZIRANGA, Oct 7 - Elephants form an important component of our ecosystem and its habitat must be protected since this would ensure conservation of other wildlife in any forest area. This was the view expressed by Wildlife manager and Divisional Forest Officer of Eastern Assam Wildlife Division (Kaziranga) Rohini Ballav Saikia at the World Elephant Day as part of the ongoing Wildlife Week at Minimum in Kaziranga recently.
Saikia said that it is very important to protect elephant habitat and the extensively long corridor since they (elephants) are migratory by nature and prefer to move from one destination to another. While ensuring the protection and conservation of habitat of elephants, safety of other wild animals in any forest area also remain assured.
Speaking to this correspondent, Saikia said that its very important to make the younger generation, especially school students aware about the significance of elephant habitats so that these students could play a vital role in reducing man- elephant conflicts in the future.
Research Officer of Kaziranga National Park Robin Sharma spoke about the basic characteristics of an elephant including morphological characters of elephants.
Dr Naveen Pandey from Corbett Foundation said that it was important for people to know about the nature of the wild elephants and protect them to have a balanced ecosystem. The Corbett Foundation had donated books on conservation of rhinos and wild animals to the authority of Kaziranga National Park. The books were dedicated to frontline forest staff of Kaziranga National Park.
There were some elephants at Mihimukh on the occasion and the Forest Veterinary officer Dr Debabrata Phukan explained to the students about parts of elephants and the diseases they suffer from. Later, a painting-cum-quiz competition was held at Forest Convention Centre where students from various schools participated in the competition as a part of the Wildlife Week. The quiz competition was organised by Corbett Foundation and anchored by wildlife warden Uttam Saikia.
