The U.P. State Biodiversity Board today celebrated the International Day for
Biological Diversity. A National Conference was organized on the occasion
which was attend by forest officers, scientists, academicians, non-profit
organizations and representatives of other departments like fisheries,
agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry. The theme for this year’s
International Day for Biodiversity is “Forest Biodiversity”. This is
significant as last year 2010 was the International year of Biodiversity and
this year 2011 has been declared by the United Nations as the International
year of Forests. The United Nations has also declared 2011 to 2020 to be the
International Decade for Biodiversity. About 400 delegates attended this
conference. Also India comprises 2-4% of the world’s land area, 4% of water
but is home to 8% of recorded species of flora and fauna of the world. In
India the forest cover is about 23.8% but UP has a forest cover of 9.01%  of
the total geographic area.

The chief guest on the occasion was the honourable forest minister of Uttar
Pradesh , Shri Fateh Bahadur Singh who inaugurated the conference. He said
that UP was one of the pioneer states to form a Biodiversity Board and UP
has been sensitive to the cause of biodiversity conservation. The important
guest speaker on the occasion was Shri. P.K. Sen who has been awarded the
Padamshree in March 2011. Shri P.K. Sen has a wide experience in management
of Zoos and National Parks and has also worked as Director, Project Tiger.
He  said that more than 70% of India’s biodiversity is confined within
forests.

Shri P.B. Gangopadhyay, Ex- PCCF of Madhya Pradesh and Ex-Addl. D.G.,
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India also spoke on the
occasion. He gave a beautiful powerpoint presentation on the 16 forest types
in India. His talk covered the major threats to biodiversity – land
diversion, encroachment, fuelwood removal, grazing. forest fires, Illicit
felling, habitat fragmentation. He said he was happy that everyone agreed
that biodiversity is to be saved. Atleast there was consensus on the saving
of biodiversity. he made two main requests: To have an alternative railway
line at Dudhwa second : lowest level has lot of vacancies , especially at
forest guard level. It is on them that survival of forests depends. In MP
about 4000 new forest guards were recruited in 2008. Similar efforts are
needed in other states also.

Shri Raman Sukumar, Professor and Chairman, Centre for Ecological Sciences,
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Mr. Sukumar has specialization in
Wildlife Ecology and Tropical Forest Ecology. He spoke on the importance and
resilience of tropical rain forests .Moderately dense forests are about 40%
. He said that abundance of Tigers forests are highest in tropical dry
forests. Non timber forest products from dry forests in India generate
revenues of 700 million $ annually. He also spoke on carbon sequestration
potential of tropical dry forests in India. There is a great resilience
built into tropical rain forests in India. He said long term planning is
needed for India’s forests. He presented 20 year growth data for a forest in
Mudumalai in Tamilnadu which proved that more than long term planning makes
more sense for forest planning than just 3-4 years planning. He said that
compared to tropical evergreen forests the tropical dry forests may not be
species rich but have their own intrinsic values and may be an important
carbon sink in the face of environmental variability and disturbance. this
is very important for international policy discussions under UNFCC.

Shri K. Venkatraman, Director, Zoological Survey of India spoke about
India’s rich biodiversity. He emphasized on the importance of saving old
growth forests which are just 36% of the total forests. He also said that a
recent study showed that a hectare of forests gave an average of 6000$ worth
of ecological services. Dr. P.K.Singh, Director, Botanical Survey of India
was also present on the occasion. He said that India has 167 species of
important agri-horticultural crops.

The conference was a grand success. Scientists from National Botanical
research Institute, Birbal Sahani Institute of Paleobotany, Central
Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic plants, CDRI, Sugarcane Breeding
Research Institute and National Bureau of Fish and Genetic Resources,
Director Institute of Subtropical Horticulture, Shri Ravishanker along with
forest officers from all over the state were present at the occasion.

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