India sets bio-diversity agenda Spl Correspondent NEW DELHI, Jan 4 As part of its initiative under the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB), India has chalked out an 11-point goal to achieve the 2010 bio-diversity targets. Protection of world-famous one-horned rhino is set out as one of the goals. Addressing a press conference, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forest Jairam Ramesh said United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity to raise awareness about the underlying threats to and the need for biodiversity conservation.
As a party to the International Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), India has committed itself to achieving the 2010 biodiversity targets, adopted by the Sixth Conference of Parties (CoP) to the CBD, to significantly reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity, Ramesh said.
Under the initiative to promote conservation of species diversity, the Union Minister said serious conservation efforts of the government have resulted in increase in their population. Indian rhino is considered a great success story of conservation, and today, about 3000 rhinos live in the wild, out of which 1800 are found in Assam alone, he added.
On conversation, the Minister referred to the instance of the community setting aside land for protection of elephant corridors in Garo Hills. Meghalaya supports the second largest elephant population in the North-east and majority of them are concentrated in Garo Hills, which has been declared as Garo Hills Elephants Reserve by the State Forest Department.
However, jhum cultivation and other development activities have led to fragmentation and degradation of elephant habitats leading to increased man-animal conflicts. However, to negate the adverse effects of fragmentation, six elephant corridors have been identified, the Minister added.
Several chunks of forest ranging from 200 hectares to 700 hectares have been declared as reserves, he said.
On orchids, Ramesh said an Orchid Research and Development Centre at Tipi and the Sessa Orchid Sanctuary have been established in Arunachal Pradesh.
About Indias action to combat bio piracy, Ramesh said a number of proactive programmes including creation of a database of traditional knowledge called the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) managed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been set in motion.
The TKDL is a computerised database of documented information available in published texts of Indian systems of medicine. The objective of the TKDL is to make documented information easily accessible to patent examiners to prevent grant of patents on non-original inventions.
Over 2 lakh formulations of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Yoga have been documented into the TKDL on 34 million pages of information, over a period of eight years at an estimated cost of Rs 7 crore. About 2,000 patents related to the Indian System of Medicine are granted every year in the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO) and other overseas Patent Offices.
