LEH: Dr. Shah Faesal Director School Education (DSE) on Wednesday launched WWF Conservation Leadership Programme for the educational institutions of Ladakh at DIET Leh. The project will be jointly implemented by WWF, Education Department and Department of Wildlife Protection, Government of J and K. The overall objective of this project is to build conservation leadership amongst students through on-ground action and by raising awareness about environment conservation. The project aims at developing conservation leaders from Ladakh for future conservation initiatives in the region. The project has a very special focus on capacity building of teachers and district level education authorities to facilitate active implementation of Environment Education in selected schools of Leh and Kargil. Another very important feature of this programme is a radio campaign by the students.
Dr. Faesal said that Ladakh is the best place to initiate such a programme on pilot basis and hoped that at a later stage similar programme also needs to be initiated in Kashmir and Jammu. He said that nature is an open laboratory for the students and such projects play a vital role in connecting students with nature.
Deputy Commissioner Leh Parsana Ramaswamy was the Guest of Honour. He appreciated the efforts of WWF in bringing such a innovative project in Ladakh. A specially designed resource kit with three books for the school children of Ladakh was also released by the dignitaries present at the project launch event. JigmetTakpa, CCF Wildlife, Radhika Suri, Director Education, WWF, Principal DIET Leh, Chief Education Officer Leh, Principals of various educational institutions and ZEOs were present. The programme was coordinated by Dr. Pankaj Chandan, Team Leader, Western Himalayas Landscape of WWF-India.
After the launch of the project a two days teacher training workshop was also started at DIET Leh, in which 150 teachers from various educational institutions of Ladakh and master trainers of DIET Leh participated.