Biodiversity Act to be implemented soon in entire Himachal

Shimla: The Biodiversity Act of 2002 will be implemented in the entire Himachal Pradesh soon so that all gram panchayats could avail its benefits, state Chief Secretary V.C. Pharka said on Thursday.

Speaking at the inaugural session of a training workshop on "Mainstreaming biodiversity: Sustaining people and their livelihoods", organised by the Himachal Pradesh State Biodiversity Board here, Pharka said the Biodiversity Board in the state was constituted in 2005.

In the first phase, it was implemented in Chamba, Kullu, Sirmaur and Shimla districts. Under the act, the benefits to be achieved through conservation and sustainable use of bio-resources would be given to the panchayats.

He urged the representatives of the Panchayati Raj institutions to generate mass awareness about the act so that the objective of sustainable utilisation of biological resources could be realised.

Pharka said the work on preparation of People`s Biodiversity Register has already been taken up. It would be a document of local biodiversity and traditional knowledge related to it and would go a long way in protecting the rights of the local people.

He said biodiversity management committee would be constituted at panchayat level which would work for preparing People`s Biodiversity Register with the technical support from the state biodiversity board.