Skip to content Skip to navigation

Football promotes Asian elephants

By Subhamoy Bhattacharjee |

With the aim of spreading awareness on the plight of Asian elephants and the need for their conservation, International Fund for Animal Welfare -Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI) in collaboration with the Assam Forest Department and Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) has been organising a three-day long football tournament in Kochugaon of Bodoland in Assam. The football tournament was started on Tuesday (11th February 2014).

The “Asian Elephant Football Tournament 2014” organised by IFAW-WTI  is an attempt to strengthen the links between the Forest department –Local Community-NGOs –Media, along with other like minded organisations and individuals to save the Asian elephants of  Ripu-Chirang Elephant Reserve of BTC.

The tournament is played among 12 teams from different fringe villages of Manas National Park, a team representing the National Park, members of the Wildlife Division of Kokrajhar along with personnel from the media come together to take part in this football tournament, especially curated to promote appreciation and conservation of Asian elephants in the landscape. A signature campaign for securing the wildlife in the region along with cultural activities is also a part of the conservation initiative, simultaneously running with the tournament. 

According to Sabharam Basumatary EM, BTC, "It is good to be a part of Asian Elephant Football Tournament Awareness campaign with IFAW-WTI. Each one of us should help to spread the message of wildlife conservation to the upcoming generation.  Elephants are very significant species that play important roles in the ecosystems in Wildlife. It is our responsibility to save these majestic animals that are fighting for their survival in Assam and rest of the country.”

IFAW-WTI has been working in the Greater Manas landscape for the past 8 years with the BTC and Assam Forest Department involving the local authorities. One of the primary activities of IFAW-WTI is to help spread awareness amongst the locals on key issues related to the conservation of endangered species like the elephants.

“Poaching along with degradation of habitat and other anthropogenic pressures has left these pachyderms more vulnerable than before to extinction and it becomes vital to involve all communities. Conservation simply cannot happen without their support, especially in a landscape like Manas which has been fraught with civil disturbances for a few decades now”, said Dr Bhaskar Choudhury, Regional Head of Assam for WTI.

M C Brahma, DFO (Wildlife Division) along with Prabhat Basumatary, ACF and S. Kundu, Range Officer of Kachugaon were also present at the inaugural ceremony along with other well-wishers and nature lovers.

With approximately 25000 elephants left in India and only an estimated 5600 elephants in Assam, the need to help save this species is greater than ever.

  • 6471 reads

Add new comment

Other Contents by Author

Hand-reared rhinos moved to Manas

Two sub-adult rhinos, Gopal and Hari have been shifted to Manas National Park from the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), Kaziranga today. The rhinos will be released in the wild following a period of in situ acclimatisation in the UNESCO World Heritage Site. They follow the five rhinos - three females and two males that were hand-reared at CWRC and rehabilitated in Manas since 2006; the three females gave birth last year.CWRC is a wildlife rehabilitation facility jointly run by Assam Forest Department and International Fund for Animal Welfare - Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI).The two rhinos moved today - Gopal and Hari, both male, were less than a month old when...

Solar energy for wildlife conservation

Mayodia model Village popularly known as Tiwari Gaon which is far away from regular power connectivity is empowered with solar energy equipments by Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) in collaboration with the Department of Environment & Forest, Arunachal Pradesh with support from Europaeische Tierschutzstftung (ETS) on Sunday. This facility will reduce the long term power and electricity crisis faced by the villagers. This is for the first time that an NGO like WTI is providing the solar equipments to a model village in the vicinity of Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary (Mehao WLS) in Arunachal Pradesh in India.The beneficiaries received the solar equipment which was a total solar energy based...

Workshop to address animal emergencies during disasters

The International Fund for Animal Welfare - Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI) in collaboration with Assam Forest Department is organising a four day ‘Disaster Relief Workshop and ERN meet’ for animal rescuers and rehabilitators from across the country, beginning today.  “Preparation, and quick and coordinated action are key priorities to save lives during disasters, whether for humans or animals,” said Shannon Walajtys, Animal Rescue Manager, Disaster Response & Risk Reduction (DRRR), IFAW. “This workshop will not just train rehabilitators individually but will also strengthen the fraternity to mobilise coordinated action during disasters,”- she also added. The ERN...

Manas animal keeper gets Wildlife Service Award

Maheshwar Basumatary aka Ontai, an animal keeper with the International Fund for Animal Welfare - Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI)’s Greater Manas Conservation Project has been honoured with this year’s prestigious Sanctuary Asia Wildlife Service Award for his contributions to conservation in Bodoland. (The award will be given to him this evening at an event in Mumbai.)Born in the autonomous district of Bodoland in Assam, Ontai grew up amidst political unrest that afflicted the district till early 2000s. He got married at an early age of 19 without any job in hand. Soon after, unfortunately he lost his way and fell in company with the wrong crowd helping the poachers as trackers.“Those...

Paint Manas Green project

As part of the International Fund for Animal Welfare-Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI) Animal Action Education Programme, the young boys and girls of Kahitama High School, Bahbari High School and Manas M E School joined their teachers, local artists and members of theDepartment of Education, Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) as they made their school walls explode with colour while painting their favourite animals all over them. The objective- to spread awareness on the plight of wildlife in Manas National Park. Already three schools have been covered under the campaign.The International Fund for Animal Welfare's Animal Action Education programme (IFAW-AAE) is operational in 18 countries...

Sixth family of eastern hoolock gibbons shifted to Mehao WLS

Continuing efforts of conserving the last of India’s apes, the International Fund for Animal Welfare-Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI) team in collaboration with the Arunachal Pradesh State Forest Department successfully captured and released two eastern hoolock gibbons, over a two-day period, from the village of Dello to a safer and more suitable habitat in the Mehao WIldlife Sanctuary.Ipra Mekola, Arunachal Pradesh State Wildlife Advisory Member, who was part of the release team yesterday, remarked on the project’s efforts saying “Gibbons essentially live in strong familial units. Capturing every family is extremely difficult to begin with and the more complex the terrain, the more...

Wildlife Crime Prevention training at Manas

Under the IFAW: WTI Wildlife Crime Prevention Training programme, a total of 100frontline forest staff of Manas National Park, Manas Reserve Forest, Kachugaon Reserve Forest and Ripu Reserve Forest in Greater Manas are targeted to be trained and equipped in partnership with the Assam Forest Department and Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). The first batch of 32 trainees among the four batches from all the three ranges of Manas National Park is undergoing training from Sunday.Greater Manas is a critical wildlife habitat along the Indo-Bhutan border in Bodoland, Assam, supporting a wide range of flora and fauna including the endangered Asian elephant, Royal Bengal tiger, greater one-horned...

Remarkable turnaround: No Amur falcon hunted in Doyang roosting site this season

Over a month since the migratory Amur falcons’ arrival in Nagaland, not a single bird has been killed in their roosting site in Doyang Reservoir, reports the Amur Falcon Protection Squad (AFPS) – a group of former hunters, who along with the Nagaland Forest Department staff are patrolling these areas to keep the birds safe.  This remarkable turnaround - considering tens of thousands of falcons reportedly hunted last year - was brought about through joint initiatives implemented by the local communities, the Forest Department and NGOs including the Natural Nagas and Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). This includes daily patrol by the Forest Department staff and AFPS along the Doyang...

Training to Bhutan’s forest rangers for tiger protection

The Wildlife Conservation Division of Bhutan along with the International Fund for Animal Welfare – Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI) have launched a month-long training for around 450 forest rangers for effective wildlife crime prevention in the landlocked country.The skills learned will help the rangers deal with a wide range of issues to protect the country’s natural heritage including the tiger. Each staff will also be equipped with field kit sets (rucksack, winter jacket, rainsuit, water bottle, cap, sleeping bag) to help them in their daily duties, including specially-made kits for frontline staff working 5000 masl protecting the rare snow leopards.Sonam Wangchuk, Chief of the...

Otters pups rescued from KNP

Three smooth-coated otter pups rescued from the floods in Kaziranga National Park last week are currently being hand-reared at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC).The pups, all male, yet to open their eyes, were found floating on hyacinth leaves by local people in Mahpora (Dagaon) from the fringes of the National Park, last Friday.“The people apparently found the pups while they were fishing. They handed over the pups to the Forest Department staff, who called us to collect them as they could not locate the mother or their den,” said Dr Anjan Talukdar, International Fund for Animal Welfare – Wildlife Trust of India (IFAW-WTI) veterinarian.The pups are being bottle...