Aaranyak, a frontline conservation organisation of India, gears up to organise a competition on ‘Documenting degraded rivers of Assam: An initiative for creating knowledgebase and exploring options for sustainable rejuvenation and management”.

Young environmental workers of Assam, aged between 18 and 30, can participate in this competition.

The programme is part of a project on river rejuvenation being implemented by the Water, Climate and Hazard Division of Aaranyak and funded by the State Innovation and Transformation Ayog (SITA), Assam.

Rivers all over the world are facing major threats from pollution, over exploitation, flow fragmentation due to structural barriers and ecological degradation.

The current state of rivers in Assam is no exception.

The rivers of Assam are getting ecohydrologically degraded due to increasing deforestation in the catchment areas, pollution of river water, choking of channels by accumulation of solid wastes, spread of invasive plants, fragmentation of flow regime which include drastic change in flow, loss of lateral and longitudinal connectivity, excessive sediment load, and disintegration of flood plains.

The objectives of the competitive programme are to:

i) Make public, especially the young generation of the state aware about the values of rivers, their ecological services rendered to human societies and nature as well as the current problems that have caused degradation and near death of many small rivers and rivulets of Assam.

ii) Create a database and knowledge domain on the status of the degraded and endangered rivers of Assam;

iii) Help the government of Assam in managing the rivers of the state sustainably by providing recommendations for rejuvenation of selected rivers and riverine ecosystems.

“The competition is meant specifically for the youth aged between 18 and 30 who are domiciled in Assam,” Aaranyak said in a statement.

Applicants with educational qualification of 12th standard are eligible to participate in a group comprising of at least two and at the most five persons including one female applicant.

Intending applicants have to follow three steps to participate in the competition, these are:

i) Applicants register for the competition by filling up a registration form by June 5, 2021;

(ii) Registered groups submit an abstract in a prescribed format by June 15, 2021;

(iii) Groups shortlisted based on evaluation of abstracts will deliver the full report in a given template on or before July 31, 2021.

Selected groups will be supported with mentoring by experts for full report preparations.

There are no registration fees for participation in the competition.

Successful competitors will get lucrative prizes and incentives.

The ten best reports will be published in the form of a compilation after necessary validation and editing by experts.

All authors of selected reports will get the general membership of Aaranyak free of cost.

All the ten selected groups will receive gift packs of book as well as certificates of participation and rank holding.

The first three best manuscripts will win Rs. 15,000, Rs. 12,000 and Rs. 10,000 respectively.

The rest of the seven manuscripts will get Rs. 3000 each.

To know more about the event and download registration and abstract forms, interested persons may visit the Aaranyak website at the link: https://www.aaranyak.org/showpage.asp?id=16.

For any queries and clarification, candidates may contact (i) Pranab Goswami (Mobile: 8638701236) and (ii) Bijoyinee Sarma (Mobile: 8723882158).