AALO, Mar 11: The fourth edition of the two-day forest festival got underway amid verdant forests and a wide range of activities at Kombo Pomte village today.

Gracing the occasion as chief guest, Brigadier JS Budhwar, Commander Aalo Military Station was all praise for the forest department for conducting the annual forest festival to create awareness on importance of forests and environment among the local populace.

He stressed on conservation of forest products and said that ‘each one plant one’ should be the principle to keep the greenery intact in the state. He also spoke on the hazards of plastic and urged people to avoid its use.

Former DFO Aalo and Special Secretary RD and Panchayati Raj, Nyali Ete expressed his happiness that the idea conceived by him way back in 2014 to raise forest and environment consciousness among the people with a handful of workers and forest officials has reached such a platform today. He urged the department, PRI, GBs and local people to continue their support and cooperation to keep it going in future. 

Spelling out the aims and objectives of organising the festival, DFO Aalo Abhinab Kumar, said that it is an endeavour towards creating forest and environment friendly atmosphere directly coming in close contact with the local people. He raised concern over the falling forest cover graph and urged people to carry out plantation drive. ‘The state which was covered with 80% of forest earlier has gradually come down to 61% and the dwindling graph is a cause of concern and massive tree plantation drive is the only alternative to the losses we have seen with the passage of time,’ he said.

Farm2Food Foundation, Vermicompost Workshop, Nature Painting with Kids by Karry Padu, WWF Film Festival, WWF Workshop by Kamal Mehdi, Responsive Ecotourism Workshop with Piran Elavia and Workshop on Biodiversity by Dr. Kenjum Bagra were the main attraction of the first day of Aalo forest festival.

The Department of Forest, Textile and Handicraft, APWWS, Galo Ane and local people of Kombo also 
put up various exhibition stalls on forest seedlings, art and crafts, traditional wears and local food items on the occasion.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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