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Uniting with flora and fauna- HNAF organises annual nature study camps in Neora Valley National Park

Uniting with flora and fauna- HNAF organises annual nature study camps in Neora Valley National Park

Swaati Chaudhury, SNS: With the year nearing to an end it's time for Siliguri's Himalayan Nature and Adventure Foundation to kick-off its annual nature study camps For a wide cross- section of students. Set up with a mission to raise environmental awareness and to instil the feeling of love for nature among the younger generation, the voluntary group is ready to host its 27th All India Nature Study Camp from 18 to 23 December at Sakam Forest village in the district of Kalimpong. Sakam is 72 km away from Siliguri and about 75 km from New Jalpaiguri railway station, The participants will get a view of the Neora Valley National Park from the camp site, which has a plethora of medicinal flora.
Shankar Mazumdar, secretary, HNAF informed, "The camp is held for differently-abled school students across the country. There will be 125 students joining the camp along with their escorts coming from voluntary organisations like Asha ki Jharna based in Rajasthan, Aska Kiran of Benares, Kolkata's Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, School of Joy of Jamshedpur and Sishu Sarathi of Guwahati. The mentally and physically- challenged kids do not get a chance for outdoor vacation and rarely interact with nature in their destinations. These children with special needs should be given an opportunity to commune with nature. The nature camp will have a wide spectrum of adventure activities like river crossing, trekking, rappelling, Burma Rope Bridge and artificial wall climbing The children will also get an opportunity to know about the local customs and culture.
For the general category students between 6 to 14 years of age, the environmental group will be organising Nature Study Camp at Sakam from 25
to 30 December. Mazumdar said,"The camp will have the participation of 165 school students. In contemporary times, most students reside in concrete jungles and do not have any feeling for nature. The adventure activities will comprise camp crafting, hiking and jungle training.
'That's not all.The environmental entity is also organising nature study camp for visually-impaired students at Murthy in the district of Jalpaiguri on the banks of river Murthy. Mazumdar further said, 'The nature camp will be held in close association with the state forest department that will mark the presence of 65 visually- impaired students belonging to marginalised section from Tarai and Dooars region of North Bengal. The camp will be in the second half of January."
Apart from these, the environmental set-up will also have nature camp for deaf students with the presence of 40 such students from Kolkata. The group has some surprise in in store for bird-watchers. Neora Valley National Park forms a favourite ground for 100 resident avian species, Mazumdar added. "There would be a three-night bird-watching camp at Neora Valley National Park for all in February. Nearly 40 bird-watchers will be making their presence in the camp. The Himalayan and high-altitude avian species visit the national park in February and bird-watchers can get to sight a large number of avian species."

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