MIAO, Mar 11: A three-day residential training on special interest guide was conducted for 43 trainees, including six women from Tirap, Changlang, Namsai, Lohit, Lower Dibang Valley and Dibang Valley districts at the Namdapha Jungle Camp and Deban in Changlang district from 5 to7 March last.
Organized by the human resource cell of the state’s Tourism department, the training aimed at creating grounds for ‘biodiversity leaders’ and ‘naturalists’ in Arunachal Pradesh to help local youths understand the cross cultural and natural history of the state and connect the same to their livelihood.
Soumyadeep Datta from Dibrugarh, Kolappa Venkatesh from Bangalore, Swastik Sarkar from Dhubri, and Nawraj Pradhan from Kathmandu conducted the training, which was coordinated by state Advisor for Rural Tourism & Homestays, Raj Basu.
The inaugural programme was attended by District Tourism Officer from Roing, T Tapak and Tourism Information Officer of Miao, Khoda Yakang.
During the training, discussions were held on topics like preparations towards becoming a naturalist and guest handling. Participants were taught about biodiversity, flora and fauna specific to Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, local cultural interpretation, wilderness first aid, working on ‘guest delight’, basics of guiding techniques, storytelling, photography with social media impact, and survey of local Miao market.
The trainees also had to practice the basics of guest handling and were later taken on a field visit to the Namdapha Tiger Reserve, centred around Deban.
Deban Range Officer H Thungkhang and butterfly expert Issac Khemkar also interacted with the coordinators and trainers.
