Lemsachenlok, an environmental group in Longleng district became the proud winner of the prestigious India Biodiversity Award 2018 commemorating with the International Day for Biological Diversity in Telangana Agriculture University which is also celebrating the 25 years of Action for Biodiversity.
Lemsachenlok was selected from more than 200 groups nationwide and out of which only 20 were shortlisted. Lemsachenlok was nominated by the National Board for Conservation of Wildlife Species category institution. Team leader of Lemsachenlok, Y Nuklu Phom is a well known Christian scholar and general secretary of Phom Baptist Church Association. He is active in teaching and preaching while also engaged in preserving the biodiversity.
Nuklu Phom along with other initiated the Yaongyimchen Community Biodiveristy Conservation Area (YCBCA). It is maintained by the Yaongyimchen, Alayong and Sanglu Village Council under the committee set up by Lemsachenlok.
Since then, hundreds of endangered wild species have returned to the Conserved areas. One of the success stories in the Community Conservation has been the roosting of the Amur Falcons which has been increasing consistently. In the past 2-3 years, more than ten Lakh Amur Falcons have been roosting in the Yaongyimchen Community Biodiversity Area.
Nuklu has expressed deep gratitude to Nagaland government and especially the Forest and Wildlife department for recommending Yaongyimchen for the award and also the civil administration at Longleng and Phom People’s Council besides the civil society groups involved with the programme at Yaongyimchen.
He also expressed gratitude to the Wildlife Institute Dehradun for all the initiatives.
The onerous task of protecting Amur Falcon was largely on account of awareness brought upon the villagers by Lemsachenlok since 2008. This awareness has created a rare commitment to contribute to the global world among the village community. Vilolage volunteers would work untiringly without any outside support and carry their own tiffin while giving asylum to many endangered species. In this way, many Amur Falcons could be tagged with satellite transmitters. Though most transmitters had been deactivated, yet the one tagged in 2016 for the Falcon named ‘Longleng’ continues to be the only one active and also called as ‘Queen of Nagaland’ by most scientists. ‘Longleng’ is presently in China and returning to Siberia, the breeding destination.
Published at Nagaland Post on 23 May. 2018
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