World Wetlands Day festivities on Feb 2

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Special Protection Force (TSPF) adopted the Ameenpur lake system on August 7, 2015 from the Medak Collector and worked tirelessly on the lake, and it was declared as a Biodiversity Heritage Site on November 15, 2016, by the Government of Telangana.  It is the first and only urban lake declared as a biodiversity heritage site in the country. 

Ameenpur Utsav will celebrate the occasion of World Wetlands Day on the Tank Bund of Pedda Cheruvu in Ameenpur on Saturday at 9.30 am, said Tejdeep Kaur Menon, director general at TSPF. Painting competitions, essay writing, quiz, singing, dancing and staging skits will be organised on the day. 

There will be quiz and essay writing contests in English and Telugu for the colleges. For the high school classes of 8th, 9th and 10th, quiz, skit, group singing, group dancing and painting competitions will be held.  All competitions will be on “Preservation of Wildlife and rejuvenation of Nature” for the children of government and private schools and colleges located in and around Ameenpur.

The essay writing competition will be on the topic, “The driving need to rejuvenate forests and lakes as they are our life givers and their degradation means the end of existence of life on planet Earth.”  It will be held both in English and Telugu.  There will also be a medical camp for the students of the Government Junior College and schools in Ameenpur Mandal. The camp will be focused on eye and medical checkups and will be conducted in association with Malla Reddy Hospital and the Lawrence & Mayo Opticals India Pvt Ltd.

The members of Friends of Flora and Fauna (FOFF) and Hyderabad Birding Pals (HBP) will organise birding for the students with a display of the photographic equipment.The protecting and caring of the biodiversity of the Ameenpur lake system poses several challenges. “We are engaging all stakeholders, and particularly the residents of the lake environs about how the water bodies have to be safeguarded from the ecological perspective,” Manon said.  P Devidas, additional commandant at TSPF Academy, will be the nodal officer for the conduct of the event.