Nagaland: Y Nuklu Phom Bags Whitley Award 2021 for His 'Biodiversity Peace Corridor'

Nagaland- The Whitley Award, also known as the "Green Oscar," was given to a church worker from Nagaland for his efforts to establish a network of community-owned forests in the state and preserve the rare Amur falcon.

Nuklu Phom, who is in his forties, is the only Indian to receive the prestigious award this year, which is given annually to individuals from the Global South by the UK-based charity the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN). He's been working in the environmental sector for over a decade.

Phom has been working for years to create a "Biodiversity Peace Corridor," a network of villages spanning four districts in Nagaland dedicated to community conservation. The concept is focused on the "Yaongyimchen Community Biodiversity Region," a ten-square-kilometre area in Yaongyimchen, Phom's ancestral village in Longleng district, where he developed a community-based conservation programme.

His work in Yaongyimchen is mainly centred on wildlife conservation and environmental protection, but it also includes education, health, and microfinance.

Phom stated that his aim was to resolve various types of conflict. "In most cases, conflict is between states, societies, and groups, and a third party may normally intervene," he said. "However, another form of conflict is overlooked: that of humans and the environment. "No one else can intervene; it is up to humans to take responsibility," he said, adding that winning the Whitley Award was a great honour.

"There is a lot of community dispute over resources (land, water). "The conservation model we follow seeks to bring people together and, in doing so, assist in the resolution of social conflict," he said.

He created the Lemsachenlok Society to raise awareness about the rare Amur falcons, the world's largest migration raptors, which roost in Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, and Nagaland after breeding in south-east Siberia and northern China. The falcons, which were once hunted indiscriminately, have had a good conservation storey in the Northeast in recent years, scripted by the National Park Service.

For years, Phom has been raising awareness about the falcon among the locals. Since the project started in 2007, an 800-hectare reserve has been set aside specifically for the birds, and the number of roosting falcons has increased significantly, from 50,000 to one million.

"The Amur falcon, to me, represents a free world without borders because they not only roost in our forests during their annual migration, but they also fly across continents. They put together diverse cultures, tribes, languages, policymakers, scientists, and nations through their migration," he said.

"Congratulations to Nuklu Phom, the only person from India to win the prestigious #WhitleyAwards 2021 for his work; "Establishing a biodiversity peace corridor," said Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on Twitter on Thursday. The award is one of the most prestigious in the world for grassroots conservation. I wish him the best of luck with all of his future endeavours."

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