As a part of ongoing Wildlife Week celebrations, a programme was organized by the Department of Wildlife Protection at Nandini Wildlife Sanctuary and Sudhmahadev Conservation Reserve of the Wildlife Division Jammu.The programme included village meet and painting competition in which students from various schools, local residents, sarpanches and panches of various blocks, teachers and wildlife officials-participated.The Range Officers advised the people to take all precautionary measures to minimize the man-animal conflicts and imparted knowledge on Do’s and Don’ts in the forest area or when the wild animals enter the human habitation. The Wildlife Range Officer Udhampur (Sudhmahdev) Sansar Chand delved in detail on the importance of Celebrating Wildlife Week and sustainable conservation of natural resources. He stressed upon the need of adopting integrated approach and involvement of communities and stake holders particularly those residing in and around protected areas.
The Wildlife Range Officer Nandni while responding to the issue of monkey menace raised during the interaction urged the participants to discourage tourists and pilgrims plying on the highway from feeding chips, bread, biscuits to the monkeys as it is in violation of the Wildlife Protection Act 1978 AA 2002.Later, a painting competition was also organized on the occasion wherein Miss Suhani Mehra of Govt. Middle School Dansal bagged the first prize, Miss Neha Devi of Govt. Middle School Jajhar Kotli and Miss Anjali Devi of Govt. Middle School Domel clinched the second and third prizes respectively , while Miss Palvi Devi of Govt. Primary School Suketar received the Consolation prize.The Wildlife Week was inaugurated by the Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment Choudhary Lal Singh on 2nd October 2016 at Kathua.