Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Mann ki Baat on Sunday termed the ‘Arunachal Pradesh Airgun Surrender Campaign’ as a unique campaign.
“My dear countrymen, the people of Arunachal Pradesh have been running a unique campaign for a year and have named it Arunachal Pradesh Airgun Surrender Campaign,” PM Modi said in his Mann ki Baat.
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“In this campaign, people are voluntarily surrendering their airguns – Do you know why? So that indiscriminate hunting of birds can be stopped in Arunachal Pradesh,” Prime Minister Modi said.
“Friends, Arunachal Pradesh is home to more than 500 species of birds. These include some indigenous species, which are not found anywhere else in the world.”
But gradually, now the number of birds in the forests has started declining, the PM lamented.
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This airgun surrender campaign is going on now to rectify this very situation, PM Modi hoped.
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During the past few months, from the hills to the plains, from one community to the other, people everywhere in the state welcomed it with open arms, he said.
“The people of Arunachal have voluntarily surrendered more than 1600 airguns. I commend and congratulate the people of Arunachal for this,” PM Modi mentioed.
In September 2021, Union Minister of State for Forest, Environment and Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey appealed to the people of Arunachal Pradesh not to hunt animals and birds.
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He said air gun surrender campaign would be launched across the country and retired forest workers, representatives of social organizations etc. will be roped in for the same.
Describing the Air Gun Surrender Campaign of the Arunachal government as an important initiative to save animals and birds from poaching and for their conservation, Choubey congratulated Arunachal’s Forest and Environment Minister Mama Natung for this campaign.
He said it is giving very positive results said that it will be started across the country and States will also be requested for this.
The Union minister was speaking at an event in Itanagar in September where some people from Arunachal Pradesh surrendered their air guns in front of the Union minister.