As many as 38 people surrendered with their Air guns during an event organised in Tezu, the district headquarters town of Lohit district in Arunachal Pradesh. The air gun surrender program is an initiative of the state’s Environment and Forest Department to disincline wildlife hunting and create awareness of the bad effects of destroying wildlife habitat.
The air gun surrender initiative had gathered international recognition, with UNESCO recently acknowledging the efforts of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh in the conservation of wildlife. Under this initiative, people were invited to voluntarily surrender their Air guns and Licensed guns in order to stop the use of these guns to kill birds and other wild animals.
The said programme was officially launched on 17th March 2021, at Lumdung in East Kameng district, wherein 46 air guns were surrendered and Lumdung was declared the first air gun free village of the state. So far, more than 2,400 Air guns and 9 Licensed guns have been surrendered by the people of the State. The initiative got a major boost when it featured in the 84th edition of the ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 26th December 2021, where PM appreciated the efforts of the State Government.
