Review and monitoring meet for Dolphin Conservation Education Programme
Published on by Preeti Rawat Kanaujia, Senior Programme Coordinator at Centre for Environment Education (CEE)
EE is implementing Ganges River Dolphin Conservation Education Programme with the support from National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) in more than 750 schools and 10 riverside villages at 20 dolphin habitat locations of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. CEE has adopted ‘reducing pressure from rivers' as a conservation strategy for rejuvenating rivers and conserving dolphins.
The community component envisages conserving Ganges river dolphin (locally known as Souns ) and its habitat through sustaining livelihoods of river dependent communities. CEE has formed Souns Sanrakshan Samitee (SSS) for leading the community-led conservation actions, livelihood interventions and advocacy in 10 villages. For sustainable agriculture and habitat improvement; organically enhanced vegetable and riverbed farming has been initiated in 10 villages with help of SSS. River dependent farmers and fishermen communities were trained and demonstrated on organic farming techniques. Considerably, more that 45 vermin-pits constructed and more that 150 farmers started practicing organic farming at riverbank areas.
On May 24, 2016, CEE North team assembled for progress review and monitoring of the programme, observed the status of project activities and interacted with beneficiaries. They conducted community meeting with farmer and fishermen communities who appreciated the initiatives of CEE and NMCG. They discussed about bio-shield plantation for reducing river erosion, livelihood issues, organically growing of short-term flood resilient crops, sanitation, skill development, river dolphin conservation, etc.