INVITATIONAL TALK – BIODIVERSITY IN ASSAM
( Awareness & Conservation of Snakes)
– Resource Person: Mr. Gautam Baruah –
An initiative to celebrate the ‘Assam Week’ was taken up by the Department of Biology in the Assam Valley School. A wonderfully exciting online invitational talk session on ‘Biodiversity in Assam’ with special emphasis on Conservation of Snakes was organized. The resource person invited by the school was Mr. Gautam Baruah from the Balipara Foundation. The event was conducted for the students of grade 6 and all the teachers in the school took active part in the session as well.
An environmental enthusiast, Mr. Gautam Baruah leads the Rural Futures initiatives of the Balipara Foundation. Mr. Baruah has also co-founded the Eastern Himalayan Botanic Ark and he has been nominated as Member of IUCN REDD+ Working Group for India. During the talk session the students were excited beyond words and the stories they related were from their own experiences in life.
The session was extremely engaging punched with exciting interactions between the resource person, Mr. Baruah and the students and staff. We received authentic information from Mr. Baruah about the do’s and don’ts of how to live in harmony with snakes in nature. A large number of species of snakes found in Assam were shown and their categorization into venomous or non-venomous as well as their vulnerability was explained to the audience.
Many myths were broken in the minds of the young learners and they felt inspired to educate the people around them to stay away from superstitious beliefs. The first aid measures and the treatment protocols were explained by Mr. Baruah in a lucid yet simple manner. There is no doubt this session would have a long-lasting impact on the minds of the students and guide them towards living a harmonious life with nature.
