Dimapur: Noted wildlife conservationist and journalist Bano Haralu expressed concern that Nagaland lost 354 sq km of primary forest and 2,680 sq km of tree cover area from 2002 to 2024.
Addressing a workshop on community biodiversity and wildlife conservation in Kohima, Nagaland, on Monday, Bano attributed the loss of primary forest in the state to the fragmentation of forest as a community-conserved area, where connectivity is absent in most places, and hunting of birds and animals is regular.
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Notably, Haralu is the programme manager of the Wildlife Conservation Society-India’s Nagaland–Conservation and Livelihoods initiative.
She added that the absence of conservation awareness on ecology and indigenous and traditional knowledge about nature and its surroundings is another reason for the depleting primary forest in Nagaland.
“Our state is not prioritising conservation of the environment and lags in creating alternate livelihood incomes for farmers and people,” Haralu observed.
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She also cited the imminent threats to the environment prevailing in states such as soil erosion, deforestation, and the introduction of monocropping culture.
The Kohima Press Club, in collaboration with the Silviculture Division at the Botanical Garden, Kohima, Nagaland, organised the workshop.