KAZIRANGA, Sept 26 - A three-day tourists� guide training programme at Kaziranga was organised by the KNP authority, the Assam Tourism department, NGOs like Bhumi, the Corbett Foundation, and Aaranyak recently.
The inaugural session was declared open by Jitu Sharma Rajkhowa , a senior journalist from Bokakhat by lighting a ceremonial lamp. He outlined about the importance of tourism ethics which were needed to be followed by the tourist guides.
The first technical session started later on the same day with the topic, �Introduction of guide, role and responsibility and eco tourism in Kaziranga � why and how tourism helps in Kaziranga.�
The second day started with many presentations related to flora and fauna of Kaziranga and other protected areas where the resource persons like Dr Rajiv Basumatary from DR College, Golaghat, Pranab Bora from WWF- India and Samajit Ojha from Nagoan Girls� College presented their views.
While making his presentation, Dr Rajiv Basumatary laid stress on looking beyond the five big mammals. He put emphasis on conservation and protection of small wild animals like tortoise and turtles.
Dr Pranab Bora from WWF- India spoke about the plants and vegetation and their importance. He asked the participants to know the species of flora properly in order to guide some section of tourists who are generally interested to know about plants species. Dr. Samajit Ojha from the Geography Department of Nagaon Girls� College spoke about mega fauna of Kaziranga.
The third day started with many interesting topics like � Ethics of nature guiding� and Photography. Dr Naveen Pandey spoke about the ethically correct approach like following the rules and regulations properly, maintenance of time, keeping the animals undisturbed etc. He also spoke about the good qualities which were needed to be followed by all the tourist guides.
The photography session was conducted by Subhamoy Bhattacharya from WTI.
Abidur Rahman, an expert guide in the field of bird watching presented an overall view of different species of birds which are available in Kaziranga and other parts of North-east India. Uttam Saikia from Bhumi, requested all the participants to understand the topics clearly so that the same could be applied to become a very skillful tourist guide.
Later, a valedictory ceremony was held where the certificates were distributed to successful participants by Dhiraj Das, SDO (Civil) of Bokakhat. The DFO Kaziranga asked all the participants to work sincerely and honestly to serve the visiting tourists in Kaziranga.
