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Cycle Rally to Save Wildlife from Kaziranga to Orang National Park 15-17 November 2007 Aaranyak in association with over 18 local organisations and Kaziranga National Park Authority has orgaised a cycle rally from Kaziranga National Park to Orang National Park in Assam what is being billed as the biggest and effective conservation rally in Assam. The Rally was flagged off by Mr. Suren Buragohain, the Director, Kaziranga National Park on 15th November at Bokakhat at 10 am. Mr. Bankim Sarma, Divisional Forest Officer of Eastern Assam Wildlife Division, Bokakhat has lauded the effort and hoped that the conservation massages could be reached out to villagers through such effort. About 30 cyclists covered a distance of 140km in a bid to create awareness among the masses about conservation of the two most endangered mammals of the two parks — the tiger and the rhino. At different points along the route — covering the south and north banks of the Brahmaputra — the rallyists have performed street plays to reach out to the people. The rally was thought of after 19 rhinos were killed by poachers at Kaziranga while two tigers at Orang were poisoned by the villagers this year.
Apart from Aaranyak, Bhumi, Green Earth, Upaytakya, Dagrab, are some of the organisations that took part in the rally. The cyclists were welcomed at various locations by local NGOs, police, forest officials, including WWF-India's North Bank Landscape Office. Workshop on Tiger Monitoring held at Orang National Park 5-7 November 2007 Aaranyak, a scientific and industrial research organization (SIRO) of NE India working for biodiversity conservation organized a thee-days training programme on “Monitoring Tigers and Prey Animals: Advanced Training for Biologists and Managers” during 5-7 November 2007. The training programme was organized in the Orang National Park as part of the ongoing collaborative initiative of the Assam Forest Department and Aaranyak to monitor tigers and its prey animals in Assam. Monitoring tigers and prey animals, using modern scientific techniques has become a need of the hour as the tiger population throughout the country has witnessed decline. Though estimated as 3500-4000 tigers in the country, unfortunately, present data indicate that there are only 1300-1500 tigers left in India. The Forests in Assam are inhabited by 265 tigers as per the last pug mark census carried out by the Forest Department in 2002. The three-days training was meant for the biologists and forest managers and it covered different aspects of tiger and prey animals monitoring. These included general introduction on tiger, its ecology and current status, concepts of population monitoring, sign survey for tiger and prey animals, distance sampling and line transect Survey, capture-recapture sampling and camera trap survey, lab & field exercises and data analyses. The participants, while exercising the camera trapping method could in fact capture a tiger in one of the camera traps they had placed in the park, which was a good learning as well as excitement for them. The training was coined as successful one by the participants in their feedback comments as they wished the training be of longer duration to learn and practice the techniques more. Two expert tiger biologists, Dr. Bivash Pandav, Programme Leader, Tiger and other Asian Big Cats from WWF International and Mr. Abishek Harihar from the Wildlife Institute of India were present in the training programme as instructors. The training was attended by seven wildlife biologists from Aaranyak and seven Forest Department staff, which was inaugurated by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Mr. M. C. Malakar. In his inaugural talk, Mr. Malakar encouraged the biologists and the Department staff to work hard and assist the forest managers with vital information on tigers and prey animals that will be vital for saving tigers in Assam in near future. He also congratulated Aaranyak for arranging such advanced training on tigers and prey monitoring in Assam. Later, Mr. Sukumar Momin, DFO Mangaldoi concluded the training programme by encouraging the organizers to organize more such training for the staff of the Forest Department to enable them to gather scientific information on tigers and prey animals which would be very useful in managing the animals and habitats to mitigate frequent human-tiger conflicts around the Orang National Park. The Range Officer of the Orang National Park, Mr. Jayanta Deka provided warm welcome to the participants and hosted them in the Park during the training period. The Staff of the Park provided full support in the field while conducting exercise in the forest. The US Fish and Wildlife Service have sponsored the training programme for biologists of Aaranyak and the forest staff.
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