Children roped in to conserve heritage sites

NEW DELHI: Soon children will be doing their bit to conserve the four Unesco world heritage sites -- Nandadevi, Kaeolodeo Ghana bird Sanctuary in Bharatpur, Assam's Kaziranga national park and Manas wildlife sanctuary in India.
    
From October, as many as fifty children each identified from the community living around the Unesco sites will be given scholarship of Rs 500 every month to spread the message for importance and preservation for world heritage sites. The rationale behind the idea is to catch citizens young and how they can become ambassador of protecting the greens around them.
   
"Children are the best and resourceful medium to encourage their parents to participate in our heritage conservation plan. After all the sites belong to the community. We are just facilitators," says V B Mathur, Dean of Wildlife Institute of India which is entrusted with the task to initiate the heritage scholarship project in Bharatpur bird sanctuary and Nandadevi in Uttarakhand.
    
The scheme will be kicked off during the "Wildlife Week" beginning October. Guided by the officials, the students will distribute pamphlets and advise locals about the importance of environmental sites.
 
"The concept, a first of its kind, is based on the fact that people are usually receptive to the children," Mathur says.

A Bangalore-based NGO Atree has been given the task to sensitise community around the two other natural heritage sites namely Kaziranga National Park and Manas wildlife sanctuary in Assam.
 
"It is an effort to ensure people follow the practice-what-you-preach philosophy. Notwithstanding all the funds, it is really in their hands to protect their natural resources and environment. We can't do anything without their support," says R N Mehrotra, Rajasthan Chief Wildlife Warden.  

He explained that 34 children from 14 Gujjar villages around the Bharatpur bird sanctuary and 16 from staff families have been selected on merit basis after they cleared the test based on environment awareness. The students are divided into two groups from class fifth to seventh and  from standard eighth to tenth. Every year new batch of children will be selected for atleast in the next four years.
 
In fact, the scheme supplements the education and acts as a catalyst in the all round development of the younger generation and simultaneously make them environment-conscious which is the need of hour, the official adds.
 
Enlisted by Unesco as world heritage site, Kaziranga National Park is known for the world's largest population of one-horned rhinoceroses, as well as many mammals while Keoladeo Ghana National Park which was once the duck-hunting reserve of the Rajput Maharajas, is today one of the major wintering areas for  large numbers of aquatic birds including the rare Siberian crane.
 
Similarly Manas Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam is known for the good population of one-horned rhinoceros. Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks in Himalayn regions is noted for its meadows of endemic alpine flowers and outstanding natural beauty.