Assam: Media fraternity urged to focus more on wildlife crime reporting

Guwahati: The media fraternity has been requested to focus more on issues related to the conservation of wildlife and burgeoning illegal trade in wildlife across the globe to raise the mass awareness level on the need to prevent wildlife crime and create synergy among different forces to orchestrate sustained efforts against the menace that poses a grave threat to the planet’s biodiversity.

Making an elaborate presentation on the wildlife crime scenario and the expected media role in mitigating the same, a group of prominent journalists from across the country and a team of resource persons from the biodiversity conservation organisation, Aaranyak, flagged the ways the media fraternity could effectively assist the efforts to prevent wildlife crime and thereby help preserve biodiversity.

The journalists who gathered for the National Executive Committee Meeting of the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) at Burha Mayong in Morigaon district of Assam under the aegis of the Journalists Union of Assam (JUA) were urged by Aaranyak officials Dr. Jimmy Borah and Ivy Farheen Hussain how important it is for the media persons to get informed about the scheduled wildlife species—both faunal and floral ones—as per the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which was amended in 2022, so that they could contribute effectively in checking wildlife crime to a greater extent.

They pointed out how important it is for the media to get the correct information about the species, place of occurrence, and culprits involved while disseminating information about wildlife crimes. Such correct reporting of wildlife crimes by the media goes a long way in raising awareness, preventing crimes, and even convicting criminals.

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