To read the detailed report for this programme, click here.
The primary objective of the awareness sessions conducted by Last Wilderness Foundation(LWF) has been to help enable village communities living in these areas to engage and interact with their surroundings in a manner that is mutually beneficial to both, forests and people. Having lived here for centuries, they have an innate relationship with their environment. However, in recent times, external circumstance have jeopardised that relationship, thus leading to an antagonistic attitude towards wildlife.
The villages chosen for this segment of the programme are especially susceptible to the problems of poaching and human-wildlife conflict, owing to their location within the forest. Hence, the thrust of the sessions was to inculcate in these communities a sense of belonging and ownership over the forests such that the forests, wildlife and people flourish. An effort was also made to revisit the relationship between the Forest Department(FD) and the people which has been under duress owing to the spate of conflict in this region.
