India Celebrated Biodiversity Day: Acknowledged Role & Scope of Biodiversity for Sustainable Development

The International Day for Biodiversity (IBD) 2018 was celebrated all over the country on Tuesday. The celebration of the IDB under the theme - “Celebrating 25 years of action on biodiversity” provides an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of and threats to biodiversity, while highlighting its contribution to sustainable development, said the government in an official release.

The celebrations have been organised to mark the 25 years of coming into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The national-level celebrations were held at Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) Auditorium in Hyderabad.

Speaking on the occasion, Governor, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, E.S.L Narasimhan highlighted that India has been conserving its rich biodiversity for ages. “We worship trees, animals and rivers because we want to protect them.

The celebration reminds us to go back to our roots to conserve nature in our traditional ways. For us in India it is not the 25th year of conservation, as we should be celebrating thousands of years of conserving nature and living in harmony”, Narasimhan said.

He also cautioned that environment protection is of utmost importance today, as the only inheritance our children seek from us is, clean environment for good health.   “We need to protect the nature, if we want nature to protect us”, he added.

Addressing the gathering, Minister of Environment, Forest, Science & Technology, Telangana, Jogu Ramanna, underlined the efforts taken by Telangana in conserving biodiversity.

He also highlighted the effective functioning of Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the community level for conserving the biodiversity.

In his opening remarks, Additional Secretary, MoEF&CC, Arun Kumar Mehta pointed out that managing the living environment is a much more complex issue than managing the physical environment.

He stated that India has contributed significantly towards achieving the global Aichi Biodiversity Targets 11 and 16.

However, he also cautioned that the continuing loss of species may perhaps lead to the sixth mass extinction. Shri Mehta added that the Government is committed to conserve the biological resources to ensure a better living environment for human beings.