An official of Arunachal Pradesh’s tourism department has been honoured with the Balipara Foundation Award.
Arunachal tourism assistant director Bengia Manna Sonam received the Balipara Foundation Award, an award for grass-roots heroes, in Guwahati.
Ambassador Chandrasekhar Dasgupta presented the award in the presence of more than 400 people from across the world.
The award is given to the local people who have helped in the conservation of biodiversity through their culture.
This was the 7th year of Eastern Himalayan Naturenomics Forum.
The Forum is associated with organisations from across the country and world to support the biodiversity and the indigenous people of the region, including Northeast India, North Bengal, Eastern Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
The objective of the forum is to understand and discuss possible ways to create a system for enhancing natural capital and sustainable liquidation processes to build universal basic assets among vulnerable forest-fringe communities.
Balipara Foundation honoured Sagar Mehta with the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Devika Dasgupta and Ranjit Barthakur for his contributions towards organic agroforestry and healthy water practices to regenerate water bodies.
Mahan Borah, the founder of Annapurna Seed Library and indigenous seed saver of Northeast India, received the ‘Food for the Future Award’ in the 7th Balipara Foundation Social Recognition Award 2019 ceremony.