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Biodiversity council for Puducherry

— Photo:T. Singaravelou

NEW body: National Biodiversity Authority Chairman S. Kannaiyan (right), Conservator of Forest Puducherry P. Devaraj (centre) and organising secretary M.P. Ramanujam at a workshop in Puducherry on Saturday.

PUDUCHERRY: The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has formed a separate council for Puducherry to implement the provisions of the National Biodiversity Act, 2002, according to chairman of the organisation S.Kannaiyan.

“As per the provisions of the Act every State should form State Biodiversity Boards and separate Councils for the Union Territories to implement the provisions of the Act. We have formed the first such council in Puducherry,” Mr. Kannaiyan told The Hindu on Saturday shortly after addressing programme officers of National Service Scheme at a workshop on Biodiversity: Forms and Functions.

The Puducherry Biodiversity Council (PBC) would be the model for other Union Territories in implementing the provisions of the Act, he said, adding that the process of delegating powers to the PBC had been set in motion.

Mr. Kannaiyan said the Council would be entrusted with the task of documenting the flora and fauna and identifying the stakeholders, especially with regard to ownership and buyers of medicinal plants in the Union Territory, besides monitoring the implementation of the Act.

The NBA would allocate Rs. 10 lakh to the Council for putting up proper infrastructure of the organisation and creating awareness of the Act among the public, he said.

Listing out the progress made by the NBA in implementing the Act, he said as many as 18 States had formed the Biodiversity Boards. States such as Karnataka, West Bengal, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh had even started documenting the bio-reserves, he added.

Some of these States had also introduced the People’s Biodiversity Register system to list the bio-reserves of a particular locality, he said.

The Authority had formed separate committees to document endangered species, he said.

Stating that conservation and preservation of medicinal plants was one of the thrust areas, he said the international market for such plants was growing steadily. “We have all kinds of eco-system and so far we were not able to benefit from our rich biodiversity. Our exports in medicinal plants stood only at Rs. 3,000 crore,” he said.

One of the main environmental concerns was the fast depleting resources in “wild genotype of crops and pulses,” which was the basic tool for bio-technology, he said, adding that the Authority had evolved a strategy to protect genotypes of crops and pulses.

Conservator of Forests Puducherry P. Devaraj said “awareness among the locals was the key to the success of Bio-diversity Act.” He also stressed the need to evolve a mechanism to deal with bio-medical waste, especially in small States.

The two-day workshop was held by the Department of Plant Science of Kanchi Mamunivar Centre for Postgraduate Studies. Others who spoke at the function include Babu Markose Abraham, Director of the centre, G. Kumaravelu, Head of the Department of Plant Science and M. P Ramanujam, organising secretary of the workshop.

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