Workshop on application of Geospatial tools in wildlife studies held in Bodoland University

KOKRAJHAR: A two-day workshop on application of Geospatial Tools in wildlife studies, organized by the Centre for Wildlife Research & Biodiversity Conservation, Department of Zoology, Bodoland University (BU) successfully came to an end. Forty-five participants including post graduate students, PhD scholars, teaching faculties of institutes other than Bodoland University took part in the workshop.

The inaugural session was anchored by Eliza Basumatary, PhD scholar of the department. Inaugurating the workshop on Wednesday, Prof. Babu Lal Ahuja, the Vice Chancellor of BU who attended the programme as the chief guest said that sky had the limit in wildlife research. He said since Vedic period, animals had been attached to different gods and goddesses. He cited some examples and opined that to keep a track of moving animals was always challenging, which is made easier by geospatial tools. He mentioned about spatial and temporal coordinates and uncertainty principle attached to it.

Thanking organizers for arranging this kind of workshop, Dr. Manjil Basumatary, the Academic Registrar and guest of honour of the session, encouraged to hold series of such workshops as the syllabus of curricula was not sufficient to train people up for implementing the knowledge.

Earlier, delivering the welcome speech, Prof. Hilloljyoti Singha, Director of the CWRBC and the convener of the workshop narrated the background and objectives of the workshop. Dr. Kushal Choudhury, the Head of the Zoology Department told that the hands on training would also help the PG students. Vote of thanks was offered by Imon Abedin, PhD scholar of the Department. 

Dr. Pranjit Kumar Sarma, Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Bhattadev University, the sole resource person delivered a popular talk on “Alteration of land cover is a serious threat to wildlife” in the inaugural session.

During the four sessions in the two-day workshop, the topics dealt with were “Application of Geospatial Tools in Wildlife Studies : an overview”, “Rhino Habitat Suitability Assessment and habitat management”, “Case studies of Orang National Park and Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary”, “Hands-on Training  on ARC GIS including  Hawth’s tools”, “Google Earth Uses in wildlife studies”, “Basics of Remote Sensing and image interpretation techniques and applications”, “Hands on training on ERDAS- image classifications” and “Open source GIS and on MaxEnt software”. The valedictory session was anchored by Saurabh Mardi, PhD scholar of the department.

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