All Reptiles are venomous. This common fear and misconception deters us from these wonderful creatures. But how much do we know about them in real? Are all snakes venomous? Are all lizards harmful? The problem lies in the fact that conservation of reptiles and amphibians requires the involvement of students and citizens by making them aware about the role of herpetofauna in different ecosystems. 

With this aim of sensitizing a targeted audience, we from iForNature- Nature Club approached  the Department of Zoology and Department of Chemistry of Dum Dum Motijheel College (West Bengal, India), and with their collaboration and support we were able to organise the seminar on 28th February 2020 on the National Science Day (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Science_Day).


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Seminar 28/Feb/2020 Poster


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From Left: Dr. Pradeepta Guptaroy (Principal, Dum Dum Motijheel College), Mr. Anirban Chaudhuri and Mr. Shibajee Mitra.


We approached two of the most popular experts in the field of Herpetology from West Bengal, Anirban Chaudhuri who is an AWBI (Animal Welfare Board of India) certified trainer, currently working in Wildlife Conservation Society (India) for the protection and conservation of Turtles and Tortoises ,Combating Wildlife Trade(http://wcsindia.org/home/about-us/staff/), and Shibajee Mitra who is the secretary of BRCS - Badu Reptile Conservation Society and is an expert of reptiles and amphibians and is an expert in handling and rescuing venomous snakes.

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Audience in the seminar hall at Dum Dum Motijheel college.


The first session of the seminar delivered by Anirban Chaudhuri mainly focused on Turtles and Tortoises, where several vital topics of overall anatomy and morphology, identification of common species, distribution of species,  threats and conservation strategies were discussed followed by an interactive session. It is the sheer oratory skills of Anirban Chaudhuri that made such a composite scientific topic extremely palatable for the general audience yet retaining its scientific significance. 

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Mr. Anirban Chaudhuri during his lecture, explaining the different groups of turtles in India .

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The interactive session where every participant providing a correct answer was gifted chocolates by the speaker.💕

With a short tea break, we began with our next seminar topic Snakes around us: their conservation and threats in West Bengal by Mr. Shibajee Mitra, where he debunked the popular myths associated with snakes and enriched us with an excellent overview on common snakes in West Bengal, how to identify them, their conservation status in West Bengal and described the role of reptiles in sustaining an ecosystem. Lastly he provided us with a pictorial demonstration of the protocols of snake rescue.  

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Mr. Shibajje Mitra delivering his lecture on "Snakes around us".

It was an honour for us to have them and being able to provide them with a small token of love and gratitude from me, Banani and the entire team of iForNature – Nature Club.

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From Left: Mr. Shibajee Mitra, Dr. Jhumpa Mukherjee and Banani Bhattacharjee.

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Mr. Anirban Chaudhuri receiving the memento of gratitude from Banani Bhattacharjee.

We would like to thank to Dum Dum Motijheel College, Principal Sir Dr. Pradeepta Guptaroy, entire Department of Zoology and Department of Chemistry of Dum Dum Motijheel College, special thanks to Dr. Jhumpa Mukherjee, Arjan Basu Roy and Dr. Asmita Samadder and our entire team of iForNature-Nature Club, working members including Aritra Mukhopadhyay, Ranita Saha, Subhajit Kumar Das, Subhartha Panja for their added support.

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Lastly we were very happy to announce the contribution of both the speakers Mr. Anirban Chaudhuri and Mr. Shibajee Mitra in a recent publication,  the discovery of a new species of frog from West Bengal.

Purkayastha, Jayaditya & Das, Madhurima & Mondal, Kingshuk & Mitra, Shibajee & Chaudhuri, Anirban & Das, Indraneil. (2019). A new species of Polypedates Tschudi, 1838 (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from West Bengal State, Eastern India. Zootaxa. 4691. zootaxa.4691.5.6. 10.11646/zootaxa.4691.5.6.

Link: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337258526_A_new_species_of_Polypedates_Tschudi_1838_Amphibia_Anura_Rhacophoridae_from_West_Bengal_State_Eastern_India

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