Port Blair, Aug 23: A five days residential camp, Eco-Eureka Youth Engagement Workshop on Nature and Labs was held recently at Forest Training Institute, Wimberlygunj. The camp was organized by C.P.R Environmental Education Centre, Port Blair in collaboration with Dept. of Environment and Forests, Andaman & Nicobar Administration for the selected college students of the Islands. The Camp aimed at generating awareness on nature and environment by scientific communications was funded by Dept. of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.
The comprehensive training camp focused upon various subjects related with nature and environment like floral and faunal diversity of the islands, assessment of soil and water quality and land used evaluation, pollution and its impact on environment, climate change, marine ecosystem and its conservation etc.. Besides the class room sessions, practical sessions involving field visits to forest areas including mangrove habitats, visit to various institutes, labs and museums attached with Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG) Field Station, Shoal Bay, Central Island Agriculture Research Institute (CIARI), Garacharma, Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Port Blair and Botanical Survey of India (BSI), Port Blair. The students were also given hands on training on GPS handling, water and soil testing, noise pollution assessment etc. The camp sessions were handled by competent and qualified resource persons with professional expertise and long field experience in various disciplines of forest and environment. Resource persons from Dept. of Environment & Forests, IIG, CIARI, BSI, ZSI, Dept. of Science and Technology, A&N Admn. And JawaharLal Nehru, RajkiyaMahaVidyalaya (JNRM), Port Blair led various sessions.
The 5 days camp started on 18th August, 2017 with the inaugural function held at 0930 hrs in the conference hall of Forest Training Institute, Wimberlygunj in which Dr. K. Ravichandran, IFS, Chief Conservator of Forests who was the Chief Guest of the function distributed training kits to the participants. The camp concluded on 22nd August, 2017 with the valedictory function held at 1500hrs in the Institute. Shri. S.K. Thomas, IFS, Divisional Forest Officer, South Andaman graced the function as the Chief Guest and distributed course completion certificates to the participants.
Altogether 25 students from JNRM and Tagore Govt. College of Education, Port Blair attended the Camp. They actively participated in the entire camp updating and clarifying different subjects of the camp and taking up various practical assignments on different topics. The whole activities of the camp were coordinated by Shri. A. Gopal, Project Officer, CPR Environmental Education Centre, Port Blair and Shri Joju P. Alappatt, Director, Forest Training Institute, Wimberlygunj.
