Glorious Science Week: People & Leopards of Himachal Pradesh Discussed
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Shimla, Feb 26 – Himachal Pradesh Council for Science Technology and Environment (HIMCOSTE), Shimla celebrated 5th day (26th Feb. 2022) of a week long program titled as Glorious Science Week – Vigyan Sarvatra Pujyate at Centre of Excellence, Government Post Graduate College, Sanjauli, Shimla.
Today’s program chief guest was Sh. Anil Thakur, Addl. PCCF (WL), HP Forest department Shimla and speakers are honoured by Sh. Satpal Dhiman, Additional Secretary, Environment, Science &Technology and Joint Member Secretary, HIMCOSTE.
Sh. Sudesh Kumar Mokhta, Director, Environment, Science &Technology and Member Secretary, HIMCOSTE, during his speech highlighted the space technologies of India. In these 75 years India have done great scientific development in the field of Science and Technology. He shared his life experiences and inspired students to work hard to reach their dreams. He informed that HIMCOSTE conducted State Level Himachal Pradesh Children Science Congress program for the students of Himachal Pradesh under which different activities of Science (Quiz, Mathematic Olympiad, and Science Activity Corner & Innovative Science Model) was done. At last in concluding he congratulated the HIMCOSTE team with Principal Sanjauli College and there staff for there sincere efforts.
Today program started with the lecture of Ms. Shweta Shivakumar, She is a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), Bangalore. Her lecture based on fourth theme Science Literature Festival. Her topic was on People & Leopards of Himachal Pradesh. She shared experiences of her research work. She told about leopards are genus Panthera, a member of cat family, Felidae, mostly they are distributed around the Sub-Africa, central Asia and Southern Russia with Indian sub continent. In Himachal it’s mostly found between the borders of Shimla and Kullu. She discussed the techniques used to do identification and to study the anemology and behavioural patterns of leopards. The main focus was on the human leopard interface by people of Himachal Pradesh. The news clippings and interviews were also shown who encountered by leopard attacks. She told that leopards are unique by spots on their skin and claws patterns; using camera traps they are easily counted. She informed that Government of India provides compensation to the leopards victims.
Ms. Mittal Gala, Programme Manager (Bird Count India), her topic was on An Introduction to Birding. She informed that India is the home of 1366 species of birds. In which 81 are endemic to the country 212 species are globally threatened. She told interesting facts related to birds in the Indian Mythology and Folklore. She referred the examples of Sarus Cranes importance in Arunachal Pradesh and also the contribution of Jatayu (belong to Vulture family) in epic Ramayana. She covered the topic on Bird Migration, how to do Bird Watching etc. She gave special techniques to observe anatomy of birds for identification. She informed on latest technologies app like eBird & BIRD ID. And lastly she explained about behaviour patterns of birds belonging to different families. She told that according to the State of India Birds Report common bird of India is Myna. This report records that 101 species of birds have been lost this year and Eagles & Vultures species are on the edge of extinction.
Sh. Anil Thakur, Addl. PCCF (WL), HP Forest Department Shimla, during his speech he said about the wildlife of Himachal Pradesh. He informed about different projects done for the leopard conversation in Himachal Pradesh with collaboration of Zoological Survey of India to estimate the leopard and bear population.
In the end of the event winners were honoured with Prizes & Certificate and was congratulated for there commendable work in Science field.
