PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, July 29: International Tiger Day is an annual celebration to raise awareness for tiger conservation, held annually on July 29.
Tigers are on the brink of extinction and International Tiger Day aims to bring attention to this fact and try to halt their decline by spreading awareness among the general public through different mediums.
Tata Steel Zoological Park has been constantly working towards spreading awareness about wildlife and nature conservation since its establishment to achieve its prime goal.
50 PG students participate in series of events
To further this cause, a series of events on the occasion of International Tiger Day was organised with mass participation of PG students of Zoology from Jamshedpur Co-operative College with their accompanying professor Amar Kumar, Head of Dept. of Zoology.
A total of 50 PG students participated in the programme.
The programme kick-started by planting tree saplings of native species in the under-constructed enclosure.
Also Read- ED gets custody of Kamlesh for 5 days to take lid off ‘biggest land scam’ in Ranchi
Relation between plants and animals
Prior to the plantation, the participants were explained about the need for plantation, plantation technique and its importance in our life by Seema Rani, Biologist cum Education Officer, Tata Zoo.
She also explained to them about the relationship between plants and animals to understand the fact that “where tigers thrive, it is a sign that the ecosystem is healthy”.
Talk on ‘Save tiger, save yourself’
Thereafter, the students visited the tiger enclosure where a talk on “Save tiger, save yourself” was organized and delivered by Sanjay Kumar Mahato, curator, Tata Zoo to raise awareness and support for tiger conservation issues.
During the session he explained about the different parameters for the conservation of tigers and ex-situ management of tigers.
The session was interactive and participants actively engaged in question and answer with the Curator.
‘Touch n learn’ program and museum visit
Lastly, a ‘touch n learn’ program and museum visit was organized, where the participants were made aware of how to identify and differentiate between pugmarks of different carnivores especially tigers in the wild and also different research and survey methods in field biology by Seema Rani.
Several museum specimens were also shown making the celebration of International Tiger Day a resounding success.