Conservation Awareness Program for the childrenby | 24-02-2015 14:55 |
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I must say,it was a golden opportunity for me, I got chance to assist research work on golden monitor lizard. Golden monitor lizard is the protected species of Nepal and assessed as endangered nationally .It is listed as data deficient in the IUCN red list of the species. The study of the research lies in Bardia National Park of Western Nepal. The major aim of the study is to assess the distribution pattern and community perception towards Golden Moniter lizard (Varanus flavescens). As a routine we used to wake up in the morning, carry binocular, book and walk around the marshy land in search of species. As winter season is less probable in direct sightings of species, we found some indirect signs like scratch, hole, burrow, limbmark etc. During the survey period we found different perception of people towards golden monitor lizard. People in the study area agreed that the species population is decreasing and the major reason is the killing. The local people in the study area especially tharu used to kill the species for meat and other medicinal purpose. Even though it lies in the protected area, people are unaware about the laws and policy regarding the species. Likewise the concerned authority is not taking any initiatives addressing the issue regarding the species. The study explored that the local people have negative perception towards golden monitor lizard. While data collection we went to various school and discuss with the children as well as children are mainly involved in killing of the species in the study area.The children are unknown about the importance of the species and they innocently kill the species for meat. As a part of study, we visit various school.we not only collected data about the perception of children about the species, conservation education was also given to children focusing the importance of species in balancing ecosystem. The student were more curious about the species and its importance as well. They pointed that they kill the species only because they are unknown. They reported that there should be such kinds of conservation awareness program time and again so that the rural people can be aware about the such animal.The children were more interactive,they showered the question one after another.Furthermore they commit to conserve the species and reported that such issues need to be included in the course content so that they could know more about such endangered animals and their urgent protection. |