Bhubaneswar, May 22: As part of the International Day for Biological Diversity, the Orissa Bio-diversity Board and Regional Plant Resource Centre here Friday organised a programme, attended by scientists and research scholars from across the state and inaugurated by Forest and Environment Department development commissioner-cum-additional chief secretary UN Behera.
A conference on ‘Conservation of Biodiversity for Sustainable Development of Orissa’ was conducted on the occasion wherein a booklet of abstracts of all presentations of the conference (both in English and Oriya) on Bio-diversity Act and Rules-2002 was unveiled.
Releasing the booklet, Regional Plant Resource Centre (RPRC) chief executive Shashi Paul said the Act sought creation of bio-diversity committees at the ground level. Adopting the recommendations of the Act, 220 committees had been created at the Panchayat level. The other plans of the programme include, creating people’s bio-diversity registers that will help build a repository of all traditional knowledge of the people and airing environment related events in All India Radio and Doordarshan in Oriya to reach a wider audience were some of the other plans being formulated, he added.
Development and conservation have to go hand-in hand and efforts should be made to strike a balance between both, he told Orissa Post. While executing policies, it should be ensured that minimum damage is done to ecology, he further said. Principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) JD Sharma and RPRC principal scientist Pratap Chandra Panda were also present.
Eminent professors in the field such as RC Mohanty, BC Guru from Utkal University and BK Pattnaik former (PCCF), Wildlife, chaired the scientific sessions that followed the inaugural session.
