India’s biodiversity registers to go online: Union minister

Panaji: Consistent with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India vision, People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) — inventoried at the village level by residents — will soon be converted into electronically accessible documents. The announcement was made by Union minister of state for environment Ashwini Kumar Choubey in Goa on Tuesday. PBRs are documents prepared by locals in which they record the biodiversity of flora and fauna in their region. PBRs are required under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
Choubey on Tuesday launched from Goa the national campaign to upgrade and validate PBRs across India. He said that so far over 2.67 lakh PBRs have been readied across the country by village-level Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs).
Recording the biodiversity through the PBRs will help meet the challenges of the future such as those posed by climate change, Choubey said.
“I have seen first-hand the fury of nature in Uttarakhand,” said the minister, whose family survived the 2013 floods.
“We need not only awareness among the people but also people’s participation,” he said while speaking at the Neura village panchayat in North Goa.
Goa environment minister Nilesh Cabral said that within the next four to five years, the state government will revive the bundh system in the state. Chief minister Pramod Sawant said that the government has already spent hundreds of crores to help restore bandhs, but in many places people are allowing saline water’s ingress to facilitate free fish breeding. “We will not permit this,” said Sawant.
“We have started noting a reduction in water availability. We can see the increased dumping of waste, including e-waste,” said Sawant, speaking at the event which was organised by the Union environment ministry, the Goa State Biodiversity Board, and the National Biodiversity Authority. He added, “Each one of us needs to find solutions to these issues at the village level.”
The chairman of the National Biodiversity Authority, C Achalender Reddy, was also present on the occasion.
An exhibition showcasing the unique products from each Biodiversity Management Committee in Goa was on display. State biodiversity awards were also presented.
The best BMC award for North Goa went to Penha de Franca for preserving its khazans (coastal wetlands), plateaus, and mangroves in the face of the tremendous pressure of real estate development.
For South Goa, the award went to Raia for reviving a wetland for migratory birds.
The BMC appreciation prize went to Chodan Madel and Piligao BMCs from North Goa and Verem-Vaghurme and Rivona BMCs from South Goa.
In the individual category, the award for Biodiversity Conservation went to Dattaram Desai from Savoi Verem for South Goa for the identification, restoration, and development of waterbodies across Ponda.
The Biodiversity Enthusiast award went to Vitthal Shelke, and the Applied Biodiversity Researcher honour went to Professor Savita Kerkar.