Bharatpur sanctuary's Salim Ali Centre felicitated

NEW DELHI: The Salim Ali Visitor Interpretation Centre at Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan's Bharatpur has been conferred with the Best Asian Wetland Centre Award 2010 by Wetlands Links International (WLI), a global network of wetland education centres.

A team from World Wide Fund for Nature-India, which in joint collaboration with the Rajasthan Forest Department is running the Centre, received the award at the Wetland Link International Symposium held in Malaysia last month.

The aim of the award is to identify and reward the best practice wetland centres in Asia.

Set up in 2006, the Centre has been awarded in recognition of its role played in conserving the KNP, also known as Bharatpur migratory park, and building awareness and stakeholdership among local communities and visitors for its preservation.

The WWF has also initiated a long-term community engagement program 'Water for Life', wherein awareness is created among children in the villages situated around the park on environment especially the judicious use of water resources.

"This program has engaged over 1,800 children in the past two years and is supported by the young environment Leaders program, which hones the skills of those children who show a keen interest in environment conservation," a WWF statement said.

Keoladeo is famous as one of Asia's finest birding areas, with over 380 resident and migrant species, including the Common, Demoiselle and the rare Siberian Cranes.