Port Blair, May 19: In a novel initiative to sensitize people about the sea cow ‘Dugong’, which also happens to be the state animal of the islands, Wildlife Institute India (WII) has organized a social media event called ‘Dugong Awareness Day’ to be held on 28th May 2020.
This ten-day long sensitization program has begun on the 19th May 2020 across different social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and aims to spread awareness about importance of dugongs, threats to their existence and need to conserve them, by posting one info graphic/ photo collage each day till 28th May 2020 which will be concluded as ‘Dugong awareness day’.
Wildlife Institute of India based in Dehradun is an autonomous research organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and has been running the CAMPA_Dugong project in the Islands since 2016. WII has been sensitizing locals in Andaman about dugongs since the inception of the project by collaborating with different stakeholders viz; forest department, government schools, tourism allied agencies and fisherfolks.
The Institute believes that using the power of social media amidst the COVID-19 lockdown will be a great opportunity to sensitize a larger crowd about this extremely shy and threatened marine mammal inhabiting Indian waters.
If you wish to be a part of this initiative and be a dugong volunteer, please follow these links and spread the word!
https://twitter.com/CAMPAdugong_WII?s=08
https://instagram.com/dugongsforever?igshid=1r6dedfcnx1iq
https://www.facebook.com/dugongsforever/