‘Friends of Van Vihar’ to help tourists

Bhopal, Apr 13: With a specific aim to boost public participation in wildlife conservation and generate awareness, the Van Vihar National Park has appointed volunteers called 'Friends of Van Vihar' to help tourists inside the park. The park authorities grappling with shortage of man force, have devised a way for handling the tourists with the help of volunteers and has formed the group with members from distinguished field of society. The members of this newly formed group would act as part time guides for the park visitors.

Van Vihar authorities have devised a way for dealing with the shortage of staff for catering to the visitors by forming the group of volunteers Friends of Van Vihar. These friends would help tourists during their visit to the park. The park authorities had invited members of the society from the distinguished field like student, faculties, social workers and journalists etc, off those 50 responded with their presence, informed AK Khare Deputy Director Van Vihar.

Khare added that these members would be given special ID cards for future entries inside the park and stated that they have been given literature for collecting information about the wild life and animals. Khare informed that the members have mentioned regarding details of their spare time, during which their services would be taken by them. He stated that the formation of this group was to generate awareness regarding wild life conservation and education.

He accepted that the park authority had decided to rope in volunteers considering the insufficient staff at the park. "The volunteers would be used to help tourists especially on off days when the most of staff is away", said Khare. The participants were also given certificates of certification during the meeting. Addressing the gathering Elema Rosline, Director WWF New Delhi said that wildlife conservation was important and can't be done without the participation of the public. Noted environmentalists Ghanshyam Saxena on the occasion informed about the similar groups formed in Switzerland in 1986 and also stressed on public's participation in wildlife conservation.

The newly appointed members also interacted with the park employees and attended the animals. The initiative seems an image boosting measure as the park authority is under fire from the different sections of the society following the deaths of large number of animals inside the park in the recent past. Chief Conservator Forest and Director in charge Van Vihar AK Bhattacharya also addressed the meeting.