DERGAON, March 9 - �The unrestrained craze for development makes the issue of human-animal conflict even more critical,� said noted educationist as well as public activist Prof Deven Dutta. He was speaking at the �All Assam Open Green Debating Competition�, organised under the aegis of a leading nature organisation �Aashray� in association with �Relations� an organisation working for popularising mathematics and science, held at the Dergaon Girls� HS School recently. The topic of the debate was �Humankind�s craze for development is the root cause of human-animal conflict�.
The debate was chaired by Prof Deven Dutta. Inaugurating the competition, the Commandant of Battalion Training Centre (BTC), Dergaon Abu Sufian said that with uncontrolled fulfilment of our daily needs, we the human beings are have done a lot of damage to other animals and our society has turned consumerist. The debate was judged by senior scientist of Rain Forest Research Institute of Jorhat Dr Dandeswar Dutta, Associate Professor of Philosophy of Dibrugarh University Dr Padmadhar Choudhury and senior journalist of Dainik Janambhumi as well as writer Sankar Kaushik Baruah.
In the inaugural session, the guests and the donors of the various awards were felicitated by the organisers. Thirty-two competitors from 16 teams took part in the competition in which Arunav Khound of Assam Agricultural University (AAU), Jorhat who spoke against the motion was adjudged as the best debater. Pohar Bora of Darrang College and Kalyan Jyoti Kalita of DKD College, Dergaon who also spoke against the motion were adjudged as the second and third best debaters respectively. The team comprising Manash Jyoti Bora and Arunav Khound (AAU, Jorhat) was adjudged as the best team while the team comprising Bhuyashi Talukdar and Pohar Bora (Darrang College, Tezpur) and the team comprising Kalyan Jyoti Kalita and Pinaj Pratim Bhatacharyya (DKD College, Dergaon) were adjudged as the second and third best team respectively.
In the closing ceremony, the prizes were given away to the winning competitors. The Rita Khound memorial award carrying a cash award of Rs 10,000, a citation and a memento was awarded to the best debater Arunav Khound while the award given by Dr Saikia�s Foundation with a cash amount of Rs 5000, a citation and a memento was given to Pohar Bora of Darrang College, Tezpur and award given by the Principal of Alpine English School carrying a cash reward of Rs 3000, a citation and a memento was awarded to Kalyan Jyoti Kalita of DKD College, Dergaon. The Aswini Kr Mushahari memorial award carrying a cash award of Rs 2000, a citation and memento was awarded to the best team comprising Manash Jyoti Bora and Arunav Khound of AAU while the Chandram Pujari memorial award of Rs 1500, a citation and memento was awarded to the second best team while the Umesh Baruah memorial award of Rs 1000, a citation and memento was awarded to the third best team.
