World Wetlands Day 2024 Celebration by NEWS at Birinchibari, Basanti, Sundarban

To mark the ocasion of World Wetlands Day 2024, Nature Environment & Wildlife Society (NEWS) organised an awareness event with the local community, schools and water users associations. Nature Environment & Wildlife Society (NEWS) observes WWD2024 with EKWMA and the Birinchibari Water Users Association (WUA) at Birinchibari village of Basanti Block, - a part of the Sundarban Coastal Wetlands, a Ramsar site, in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on 3rd of February, 2024. Members of the WUA, school children, civil society organizations along with representatives from NEWS and other villagers actively participated in this awareness drive. Ms. Ajanta Dey from NEWS and Ms. Tripti Sah, IFS and Chief Technical Officer of EKWMA also participated in this event. The event flagged off with an awareness rally focussing on this year’s theme “Wetlands and Human Well Being”. Nearly 55 school students from Birinchibari Abaitanik Prathamik Vidyalaya and Birinchibari Junior High School including teachers took part in this campaign. This was followed by the plantation of different fruit bearing saplings and stocking of IMC fish fingerlings in a water body known as “Water detention structure” maintained and managed by the Birinchibari WUA. After these activities, a short meeting was held where Ms. Kamini Sardar, the Panchayat Pradhan; Mr. Radha Gobindo Barik, President of Birinchibari WUA, Ms. Ajanta Dey and Ms. Tripti Sah delivered their lectures to make the villagers aware on the importance of wetlands and why do we need to conserve them. Members from the WUA and other eminent participants also spoke on how human wellbeing depends on the health of these vital ecosystem. The programme was concluded with the distribution of awards to the school students who took part in a drawing competition organized by the school on the eve of WWD 2024.