Capital to host elephant festival tomorrow

New Delhi, March 2

Seeking to infuse love for biodiversity into the people and reduce man-animal conflict, a festival themed on elephants will be held here tomorrow to coincide with the UN World Wildlife Day.

The Centre for Environment Communication (CEC) and Prayas Juvenile Aid Centre (JAC) Society will organise the event.

The festival will play host to around 350 underprivileged children from various organisations who will participate in various activities. They will be given opportunity to understand and connect with the world of nature in an innovative manner.

The CEC said the elephant festival was aligned with the UN World Wildlife Day sub-theme- ‘The Future of Elephants is in our Hands’ as both Asian and African elephants were facing long-term challenges, including habitat loss and fragmentation, human-wildlife conflict and growing levels of poaching.

The environmental body said in India elephants were in the list of endangered animals since its numbers had “significantly declined by 50 per cent over the past 50 or 60 years”.

The key focus of the festival will be raising awareness on the crucial role elephants play in the ecosystem and how other wildlife depend on its presence and habits, showing elephant conservation solutions and ways to reduce man-animal conflict, while inculcating love for the biodiversity in children,” it said.

Alka Tomar, Founder-President CEC said, “The elephant festival is aligned with the conservation efforts of the UN World Wildlife 2016 theme - The Future of Wildlife is in our Hands.” — PTI