ITANAGAR, 13 Nov: The success story of the Airgun Surrender Abhiyan (ASA) in Arunachal Pradesh, led by Environment, Forest & Climate Change Minister Mama Natung, received international accolades at the UNESCO’s International Conference on Biosphere Reserves in Sabah, Malaysia.
Dehang-Debang Biosphere Reserve Director Dr Damodhar AT, on behalf of Natung, received the honour from the Malaysian federal government’s Environment, Natural Resources & Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmed on 13 November.
Dr Damodhar was nominated by the government of India to represent the environment, forest & climate change ministry and present India’s country report along with the success story at the UNESCO’s International Conference on Biosphere Reserves, which is being held in Malaysia.
The ASA was selected as India’s best success story in wildlife conservation to be presented at the conference.
In his keynote address at the inaugural session, Dr Damodhar shared the success story of the ASA with a documentary, and presented the nationwide report of India.
The Airgun Surrender Abhiyan is an initiative of Arunachal’s environment, forest & climate change department, under the leadership of Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Natung.
Under this initiative, people were invited to voluntarily surrender their airguns and licenced guns to stop the killing of birds and other wild animals. The programme was officially launched on 17 March, 2021, in Lumdung in East Kameng district, where 46 airguns were surrendered. Lumdung was declared the first airgun-free village of Arunachal.
The programme gained momentum under the leadership of Natung. He has been spearheading the entire programme by personally visiting almost all the districts. The people overwhelmingly responded to his call and started voluntarily surrendering their airguns, licenced guns and power chainsaw machines across the state.
So far more than 2,400 airguns and nine licenced guns have been surrendered by the people. This initiative has made a huge impact with regard to protection of wildlife in Arunachal.
As reported by the field officers of the department, many birds have now started flocking areas where they were rarely seen prior to the start of the Airgun Surrender Abhiyan.
The ASA was lauded also by various national and international media, and was awarded at the 6th Northeast Green Summit of the Forest Ministers of the Northeast, which was held in Silchar, Assam, from 16 to 18 November, 2021.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also mentioned the Airgun Surrender Abhiyan in the 84th edition of his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme on 26 December, 2021.
