Port Blair, Dec. 13: The five-day training course on Para-taxonomy including People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) for the frontline staff of Department of Environment and Forests has inaugurated by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Andaman & Nicobar Islands in Zoological Survey of India, Andaman & Nicobar Regional Centre, Port Blair today.
Shri. Kamal Datta, IFS, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Andaman & Nicobar Islands was the Chief Guest, while Dr. S. Senthil Kumar, IFS, Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), and Shri. Sanjay Waradkar, IFS, Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Department of Environment and Forests, Andaman & Nicobar Islands were the Guests of Honour. The programme was also attended by Officers from Department of Environment and Forests, Fishery Survey of India, Botanical Survey of India, Pondicherry University. The inaugural function has started with a prayer song and lighting of traditional lamp. Total of 45 frontline staff from different divisions across the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have registered for this workshop.
Addressing the gathering, the chief guest appreciated the initiative taken in providing skill training under this course. He deliberately signified how this course will be beneficial in capacity building and imparting knowledge on Coastal and Marine Biodiversity of Island ecosystem. He showed his gratefulness to ZSI/ANRC, Port Blair is playing an important role in knowledge-based capacity building program of island ecosystem. Moreover, he stated that about PBR and function of Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) in which the biological diversity including preservation of habitats, conservation of land races, folk varieties & cultivars, domesticated stocks and breeds of animals and micro-organisms and chronicling of knowledge relating to biological diversity of the area is documented workshop will focus the understanding the role of the coastal ecosystems and its vital importance in areas such as bio-diversity, food security, climate change and others. He emphasized on some insights of Nagoya Protocol, how it is significant in terms of conservation of biodiversity, equitable sharing of benefits of the genetic resources. He also mentioned to help local peoples in each panchayat to avoid being exploited for their traditional knowledge and expertise. He stated that explicit survey has been carried out by the department during lockdown to list all the medicinal plants and the local communities’ access to benefit sharing from the knowledge on bio-resources. All the participants those are enrolled to participate this workshop were greeted by him and encouraged to implement the information gathered during this five-day course on local community awareness.
In his felicitation address, Guest of Honour Dr. S. Senthil Kumar, IFS, Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), commended the current course and its plan for helping trainees in process of developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes and resources that organizations and communities need to be educated. He specifically mentioned about the formulation of patents including wild variety of grains and cereals and how the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Biological Diversity Rules, 2004 promulgated by the Government of India under National Biodiversity Authority (2004) has helped the local communities through resource conservation. He emphasized the role of forest rangers as a regulator of Collection of proposed biological resources which should not affect the sustainability of the resources; entail any environmental impact; shall not pose any risk to ecosystems; adversely affect the local communities. He also highlighted on the importance of PBR and Para taxonomy on the above issues and how it would be beneficial to the trainees. He extended his congratulations to everyone who participated and successfully completed the workshop.
Shri. Sanjay Waradkar, IFS, Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), in his felicitation address began with gratitude towards Officer-in-Charge, ZSI, Port Blair and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests for employing these kinds of courses. He stated that this form of workshops updates the knowledge on relevant issues and inspire trainees for a better experience which will be put out through interactions with the notables. He explicitly mentioned about the previous workshop on “Bird Identification and Basic Ornithology” and that the trainees have all given positive feedback for the course. He offered his thanks to the Officer-in-Charge, ZSI/ANRC for organizing these educational workshops and seminars.
Dr. C. Sivaperuman, Officer-in-Charge, ZSI, Port Blair, greeted the dignities, invited guests, professors and trainees. In his welcome address, he has speaker mentioned how the institute has developed this course for the front-line forest officials. The main objective of this course is to inform the duty personnel on how to prepare the People Biodiversity register through standard procedure. He signified the role of Zoological survey of India, Andaman and Nicobar Regional centre, Port Blair in training of newly recruited forest officials, Ph.D. candidates, M.Sc. Students, school students and teachers. He significantly said how the workshop has helped the participants to attain a better understanding of identification, documentation, preservation and conservation. He highlighted proposed fourteen lectures which will be presented during the course work. Many topics such as, flora and fauna of ANI, mangroves, aquatic insects, spiders, techniques on preservation and documentation and preparation of PBR will be dealt by lecturers from online and offline. He also mentioned about the addition of field trips in the current forum which the participants will cover in South Andaman. The inaugural function concluded with the proposal of vote of thanks.