10 Oct
2006 - Assam, India – Pankaj Sarmah, one of the
team members of North Bank Landscape(NBL) working
with AREAS passed away on 2/10/2006 in Guwahati
Assam due to cerebral malaria.
Pankaj, 29, was one of the earliest
recruits for NBL programme. He had been working
with the AREAS project in NBL for four years and
was an enthusiastic proponent of elephant and
rhino conservation in northeast India. A native
of Tezpur, in the heart of the North Bank Landscape,
he most recently was running a field camp at Manas
National Park, where he oversaw WWF's habitat
protection activities. Pankaj represented WWF
in several symposia including the elephant symposium
in Colombo. He was to attend another elephant
symposium in Denmark to present a paper on elephant
conservation in conflict areas.
He had recently formed the Manas
Conservation Alliance, a coalition of 20 NGOs
and individuals committed to conserving Manas,
a key protected area in the Eastern Himalayas.
He was the brother of Anupam Sarmah, the landscape
coordinator for NBL.
Pankaj’s positive attitude and
exceptional good nature, sincerity, cheerfulness
and courage will be missed by all his friends
and colleagues.
