Pitroda bats for national innovation council for biodiversity

TNN | Dec 28, 2012, 05.54 PM IST

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READ MORE Shashi Tharoor|National Innovation Council|National Biological Diversity Act

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Mentor of the state and National Innovation Council chairman Sam Pitroda has stressed the need for a national innovation council for biodiversity, saying it will help the local community besides conserving the fragile biodiversity regions across the country.

Pitroda was participating in a video conference at the inaugural session of the three-day national biodiversity conference, which began here on Thursday.

He said conserving biodiversity should be an integral part of the country, as this would provide food security and preserve fodder and medicinal plants in the country. "This can be done only by asking the local communities to get involved in conservation activities,'' he said.

Pitroda said the country needed to create more wealth by innovations in food processing and medicines. "Unfortunately, there are very little green innovations happening in the country now. The local communities are the real conservators and it's imperative that they are brought to the limelight. Conservation history of India is being rewritten by cumulative conservation efforts in all areas and we hope to bring about a situation wherein development and conservation go together than against each other," he said.

Inaugurating the session, minister of state for human resources development Shashi Tharoor said conservation of biodiversity was the best means to deal with the problems of climate change and adaptation.

National biodiversity authority chairman Dr Balakrishna Pisupathi said in his presidential address that the conference assumed more significance as it falls on the 40th anniversary of the Stockholm convention, which perhaps for the first time gave a political force to conservation efforts.

He said India had finalised over 108 legally binding benefit-sharing agreements and conferences like these went a long way in ensuring success of the National Biological Diversity Act.

State biodiversity board chairman Dr Oommen V Oommen, principal scientific advisor Dr R Chidambaram and principal secretary D James Varghese also spoke.