By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 6 Oct: Governor Lt-General Gurmit Singh (Retd) was the Chief Guest at the Wildlife Week-2022 celebration at the Raj Bhavan, here. He honoured those who have done excellent work in the field of forest and wildlife conservation by awarding them citations. He also unveiled three departmental short films, namely Gartang Gali Track, Secure Himalaya and Foot Soldier.
He also visited the “Fearless Tiger” photo exhibition organised on tiger conservation and awareness with the joint efforts of Doon Art Council and Rajaji National Park.
Addressing the gathering, he said that Uttarakhand is Devbhoomi as well as forest-bhoomi. Uttarakhand has the unique gift of natural beauty, which must be protected. The mainstay of the economy is nature based tourism. Along with saving the forests, there is need to develop facilities that promote tourism and increase local employment opportunities. There are challenges like wildlife and forest fire, for which solutions have to be found using artificial intelligence, drone technology and other modern technologies, he said. He asked the officers to develop new forest-based tourist destinations in the districts.
In his address, Forest and Environment Minister Subodh Uniyal claimed forest cover is increasing rapidly in Uttarakhand. Economic resources are heavily dependent on forests. Collective efforts for the conservation of forest and wildlife have to be made.
MP, Tehri Garhwal, Mala Rajyalakshmi Shah said, “We should be proud of our biodiversity. We all have a responsibility to save it.”
Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Sameer Sinha provided detailed information on the programme and thanked everyone present.
