User:Jogesh 69/Wildheart Foundation
Wild Heart Foundation (WHF) is a non-profit society established and run by a team of independent researchers and students of Northeast India for understanding the flow and its processes for conservation of nature.
| Abbreviation | WHF |
|---|---|
| Formation | March 7, 2015 |
| Headquarters | Biswanath Chariali, Assam |
Formerly called | Biswanath College Students Science Forum |
It was established on 7th of March, 2015 in Biswanath College with the aim of documenting biodiversity, understanding the flow and its processes for conservation in particular reference to Biswanath District and NE India as a whole.
Their main motto and aim is to document the biodiversity of the district as well as the whole North East, and later work towards conservation aspects.
Early life[edit]
2015[edit]
By the time of its formation, the organisation was known by the name of Biswanath College Students Science Forum (BCSSF), started by few local students to understand and study nature and the biodiversity around them.They started with conducting various programs of awareness and conservation, discussing issues, screening videos, and later on conducting the National Science Day. They started their operation by visiting and understanding the Kodomoni Beel, a wetland within Biswanath.
2018[edit]
In the year 2018, the group has started a program named as Bortukula Saboloi Jau aha': which stands for Come on, let go to watch the Lesser Adjutant Stork where they organize awareness programs on this threatened bird species.
In 2015, when two of the members of WHF documented the total of 6 species of Storks in the district. They are, Asian Openbill Stork, Black stork, Woolly necked Stork, Greater Adjutant Stork, Black necked Stork and the Lesser Adjutant Stork. For the protection of the Bird species they started monitoring and conducting yearly census. During the year they found many nesting sites of the storks have been demolished either by felling the tree or due to storms. After that they started conducting awareness programs in schools and colleges about the stork and their importance and with this they started a program named Bortukuala Saboloi Jau aha each year attracting more and more people towards understanding and co-existing with these storks.
Founder members[edit]
Ranjit Kakati, Dipankar Borah, Debarun Talukdar, Shivjyoti Ingti, Dhiraj Gupta, Arindom Borah, Rishikesh Mahanta, Ali Murtaza, Udipta Das, Pubali Dey, Niku Das, Ankur Upadhyaya, Nilim Kumar Saikia, Manas Bhuyan.
Conservation Work[edit]
Wild Heart Foundation is very closely associated with the forests and sancturies of the district as well as the state.
The society was responsible for the movement to conserve Behali Reserved Forest and to declare it as a wildlife sanctuary. Since 2015, the foundation had started the movement by submitting memorandums to the government, conducting awareness programme in different part of the state.
The society is very closely monitoring the forests and conducting researches. Dipankar Borah, an Indian field botanist and a founder member of the Wild Heart Foundation had conducted researches in the forest and discovered two rare plants in forest which is only endemic to the Behali Wildlife Sanctuary named Chlorophytum assamicum ( Critically Endangered) and Peliosanthes macrophylla var assamensias.
Moreover, Ranjit Kakati a well known wildlife conservationist, and also a key member of the founding committee of the society had conducted a study from February 2017 to January 2018 on turtle and tortoise species in the Nagsankar Temple.
The Team have so far conducted about 50 awareness programme and 23 training programmes for wildlife conservation in many parts of Assam in collaboration with Forest Department.
On 5th June 2022, Wild Heart Foundation have launched a free e-book named Only One Earth in collaboration with Chaiduar College, Gohpur and released a Documentary in their YouTube channel named THE HIDDEN WONDERS OF BEHALI RESERVED FOREST.
Moreover, the organisation is currently monitoring the two wetland of Gohpur named Borigoan and Bhervari which are home to many residential and migratory birds.