Limalenden has been leading a forestation, river restoration, waste management and responsible tourism initiatives for two decades, often without any financial support in Mokokchung district, under his initiative-Greensight Project Team (GPT)
By Imna Longchar, TFM Nagaland Correspondent
Senior journalist from Nagaland, Limalenden Longkumer, has been awarded the Indian Responsible Tourism Awards 2022 in the category of Grassroots Heroes.
Limalenden has been leading a forestation, river restoration, waste management and responsible tourism initiatives for two decades, often without any financial support in Mokokchung district, under his initiative-Greensight Project Team (GPT).
The team also works on environment protection, cleanliness, sanitation, plastic free, zero waste, preservation of indigenous food practices.
Talking to this Correspondent, Limalenden Longkumer, who is a trained journalist and having worked with many reputed media house in the State, shared that having born and raised up in Mopungchuket village (now a tourist village), Mokokchung, he has been actively involved with his village tourism development (VTD) since student days (2002) which according to him Tourism was then a very new concept.
The erstwhile VTD now is renamed as Mopungchuket Community Tourism Society (MCTS), which is the sole authority entrusted by the village community to oversee promotion, development and management of Mopungchuket tourism.
He was part of the MCTS since its inception and was entrusted to lead the tourism society team in 2019 as its convener/chairman.
Having being inspired, the “Greensight Project Team” started undertaking various initiatives on its own in the village, including plastic free campaign, zero waste campaign, afforestation and rural aesthetic development, behavioral change towards cleanliness and sanitation, and promotion of other sustainable practices.
While working as a reporter for The Morung Express as its Mokokchung correspondent since March of 2007, Limalenden Longkumer, was also appointed as a “Swachh Bharat Ambassador” for Mokokchung District in 2017.
Longkumer also supplemented that as a journalist, he was exposed to a lot of new ideas, including tourism opportunities, sustainable development and environment/conservation efforts after which he shared the ideas with his friends and peers in the village.
Working as a journalist for 15 years covering various topics and issues, Limalenden Longkumer, launched his own daily newspaper under the banner “Mokokchung Times” in February this year.