Port Blair, Oct 05: The First ever Nature Camp with Night stay for school student was organized as a part of 62nd wildlife week celebration by Department of Environment & Forests in association with Andaman & Nicobar Chamber of Commerce & Industries, Port Blair at Mt. Harriet National Park, where 30 schools students from KV-I, VKV and Nirmala Sr. Sec School, Port Blair had participated the camp with great zeal.
The camp started with 10 Km trek from Mannarghat to Mt. Harriet which was inaugurated by Shri Bhaskar, ACCI and Shri S.K. Thomas, DFO(SA). The chief guest impressed upon using such an opportunity to learn and understand the Forest Eco-system and resources available in it. The student were exposed to different components of Forest ranging from flora and fauna and their role in maintaining the integrity of eco-system, importance of forest in water resource conservation and effect of human intervention on forest by Shri Jaison John, Forest Ranger(Mahatma Gandhi National Park) and Shri Abdul Rasheed, Forest Ranger (Mt. Harriet National Park).
The school students were taken for bird watching where they were informed about basics of bird watching, uniqueness of bird diversity of these Islands, potential for developing bird protection units from student community to stop illegal poaching and hunting of birds. The participants requested the department to organize such camps in regular intervals for enhancing the knowledge base among students for appreciating the fragility and uniqueness of this Island.
