The Forest Department celebrated the World Wetlands Day at Najarayan Tank Bird Sanctuary in Tiruppur by engaging students and the public.
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Tirupur Forest Range Officer Suresh Krishnan addressed the students and the public on the importance of wetlands and the significance of observing Wetlands Day. Copies of a booklet on the Wetlands of Tamil Nadu released by the Forest Department were distributed to the students of the government school at Koolipalayam and members of the public.
Drawing kits were given to the students on behalf of the WWF-India by D. Sowmiyadevi and S.N. Sudha. Foresters Venkatachalam, Muruganandham, Uma Maheswari, Sangeetha, forest guards, anti-poaching watchers were present. Ravindran Kamatchi, president of Nature Society of Tiruppur, took the children for birdwatching in the sanctuary.
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IFGTB celebrated Wetlands Day
The Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB), Coimbatore, commemorated World Wetlands Day by organising a campaign to raise awareness of the importance of wetlands among students and the general public.
IFGTB director C. Kunhikannan inaugurated the campaign and released an awareness poster on the current year’s theme ‘Wetlands and Human Wellbeing’. He said that wetlands provide essential freshwater and contribute significantly to global food production, exemplified by wetland-grown rice, a staple for three billion people. Moreover, wetlands act as natural shock absorbers, mitigating rainfall impacts and reducing flood and storm surge risks, he added.
Chief Scientist Kannan C.S. Warrier said the 75 Ramsar Sites in India serve as abodes of many threatened species of flora and fauna, including 213 species of fish and 74 amphibians. IFGTB also organised an online awareness quiz and a mobile photography competition.