Assam launches Nameri Wild Classroom, taking students into a tiger reserve

Assam's Forest Department has launched the Nameri Wild Classroom, a residential nature-learning programme that takes students inside Nameri Tiger Reserve for two or three days at a time. State Forest and Climate Change Minister Jayanta Malla Baruah announced the initiative over the weekend of 10 and 11 October 2026, presenting it as a way to build conservation awareness among young people. It is open to students from Class 8 upward, college and university students, teachers and school environmental clubs, and is being run through the Sonitpur East Forest Division together with the reserve's administration.

Environmental studies is part of the school curriculum across India, but for most students it stays on the page. Lessons on food chains, wetlands or tiger conservation are taught in classrooms, often in cities and towns far from any forest. The National Education Policy 2020 pushes schools towards experiential, hands-on learning, and field trips are one of the clearest ways to do that. A structured, multi-day programme inside a protected area goes well beyond a one-afternoon excursion: students sleep near the forest, keep notes and learn directly from the people who manage it.

The choice of a tiger reserve is significant. Protected areas in Assam sit close to farms and villages, and conflict between people and wildlife is a real local issue. Programmes that bring students from nearby districts into the reserve can build a generation that sees the forest as something worth protecting rather than only as a threat or a resource. Including local community traditions in the schedule also signals that conservation is meant to work with the people who live around the reserve, not just around the animals.

For teachers and environmental clubs, the inclusion of educators matters. A teacher who has spent two days with forest staff can carry that experience back into the classroom for years, multiplying the benefit far beyond the students who attend. The field journal and certificate also give schools something concrete to count towards project work and co-curricular records.

What remains to be seen is reach. Until the department publishes fees, seat numbers and how schools can apply, it is unclear whether the programme will be open mainly to well-resourced schools or will also bring in government school students from rural Assam, who stand to gain the most.

Short-term: Schools and colleges in Assam can begin planning nature-study visits to Nameri as soon as the department sets out the application process and costs.

Long-term: If the programme grows, it could become a model for other states to use their tiger reserves and national parks as outdoor classrooms, linking school science with real conservation work.

Who is affected: Secondary school and college students in Assam, their teachers and eco-clubs, forest staff and naturalists at Nameri, and communities living near the reserve.

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