The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Biosecurity yet to make a deep impact in the country: Governor

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Friday, Nov 24, 2006
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Biosecurity yet to make a deep impact in the country: Governor

Staff Reporter

`India hardly has an effective system of anticipatory action'

MAKING A POINT: Director of NIAS K. Kasturirangan (left), Governor T.N. Chaturvedi, and former Vice-Chancellor of UAS, Dharwad, at the inaugural function of a discussion on biosecurity in Bangalore on Thursday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

Bangalore: "Biosecurity is a concept that is yet to seep into the minds of the people," said Governor T.N. Chaturvedi.

He was inaugurating a discussion on "Setting up a national agenda toward biosecurity" at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) here on Thursday.

He said that India hardly had an effective system of anticipatory action, adding that "intervention studies should be conducted in the areas of food production, health etc." The two-day event has been organised by NIAS in collaboration with the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai.

Ravi Khetrapal from the National Bureau of Plant and Genetic Resources emphasised the need for an effective strategy for the analysis and management of new diseases in agricultural crops and livestock.

He also spoke about the risk posed by invasive alien species of insects, pests, pathogens and weeds.

The new legislation pertaining to "Pest Risk Analysis" a precondition for imports was timely, said Dr. Khetrapal, though India still needed an integrated biosecurity policy that helped the scientific community and government agencies address the problems together. When countries such as New Zealand had a Biosecurity Minister and Council since 1999, "why does a country as large as India not have a similar system in place," he wondered.

Scientists from the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, ICRISAT, the National Institute of Virology and the Bhabha Atomic Centre, participated in the panel discussions.

The discussions stressed on an integrated biosecurity initiative to protect agriculture and livestock from pandemics, and to safeguard human health, livelihood, and the environment from such risks. This was especially important after the lessons learnt from the outbreak of avian influenza in many parts of the country last year and the larger risks of biological warfare, the panellists argued.

Toward this end, there was a perceived need to enhance the capacity of the country in monitoring, detecting and preventing threats to biosecurity, including the establishment of more diagnostic labs, quarantine facilities and an emergency action plan.

M.S. Swaminathan of MSSRF, Gopi Ghosh from FAO and Renu Swarup from the Department of Biotechnology will participate in the discussions on Friday.

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