Arunachal Pradesh has won big at the international stage. It’s success story of Airgun Surrender Abhiyan received international honour at the UNESCO’s International Conference on Biosphere Reserves. The conference was held at at Sabah, Malaysia 13 November where IFS officer Dr. Damodhar A.T. received the honour on behalf of the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Arunachal. Dr. Damodar, who is the Director, Dehang-Debang Biosphere Reserve of Arunachal Pradesh, received the honour from the Malaysian Federal Government Minister for Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change, Hon’ble Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmed on the occasion.

Dr. Damodhar A.T. was also a Keynote Speaker during the inaugural session of the event. He shared the success story of Airgun Surrender Abhiyan with a video documentary along with presenting the country report of India.

The Airgun Surrender Abhiyan initiative led by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh was selected as India’s best success story on wildlife conservation to present in this international conference. It is an initiative of the Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of Arunachal Pradesh under the dynamic leadership of Mr. Pema Khandu, the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh and Mr. Mama Natung, the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

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A moment of great pride!

Our #AirgunSurrenderAbhiyan receives global honour at International Conference and Meeting of @UNESCO on 'Biosphere Reserves' held at Sabah, Malaysia, today.

Huge applause to Shri @NatungMama ji, Hon Minister for Environment & Forest, for having… pic.twitter.com/XTBhJnw1TB— Pema Khandu པདྨ་མཁའ་འགྲོ་། (@PemaKhanduBJP) November 13, 2023

ABOUT THE INITIATIVE

Under this initiative, people were invited to voluntarily surrender their Airguns and licensed guns to stop the use of these guns to kill birds and other wild animals. The programme was officially launched on March 17, 2021 at Lumdung in East Kameng District where in 46 air guns were surrendered and Lumdung was declared first Airgun free village of Arunachal Pradesh. Since then, the Department of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of Arunachal Pradesh in all the Districts have been collaborating with the local communities. Administrative departments, NGOs and Community-Based-Organisations on ground to organise awareness drives for urging people to surrender their Airguns.

PRAISED BY PM

The Arunachal Pradesh Air Gun Surrender Abhiyan got a major boost when it featured in the 84th edition of the Mann Ki Baat Programme on Sunday, the 26th December 2021 where the effort was appreciated by none other than the Prime Minister of India Mr. Narendra Modi himself.