The term 'biodiversity' denotes the variability of life forms on earth. Each little life form has its own place, duty and specific utility that balances Nature beautifully. As such, ecosystem stability is a compelling reason for preserving biodiversity. All living organisms are an integral part of the biosphere. They provide invaluable services like recycling of nutrients, replenishment of local climate, control of floods and control of pests. The intervention or erosion of biodiversity means imbalance of nature. The Indian tradition teaches us that all forms of life--human, animal and plant--are so closely interlinked that disturbance in one gives rise to imbalance in the other.
The human species now uses 40 per cent of the planet's annual net photosynthesis produce. This consumption of two fifths of the earth's net food resources by a single species is incompatible with biological diversity and stability and leads to loss of natural habitats, overexploitation of plant and animal species and the impact of exotic and invasive alien species. This large scale erosion of biodiversity has to be thwarted at any cost as biodiversity is a vital resource that needs to be assiduously conserved. Habitat conservation is vital to prevent genetic erosion. In recent years, biodiversity conservation has gained importance because this vital resource provides building blocks for sustainable food, health and livelihood security systems. Further, it holds the key to progress in medicine, agriculture, forestry and other fields.
Biodiversity conservation is important for the maintenance of food, water, health and livelihood security as well as climate resilient food production system. With global warming and climate change posing threats to vegetation, plant and faunal diversity, the importance of conserving biodiversity is gaining momentum and scientists are now engaged in risk distribution agronomy that can ensure food security in an era of climate change.
Genetic conservation at traditional level can also be used to create economic stakes by adding value to primary products and finding niche markets for traditional food grain. In a wider sense, biodiversity can be harnessed for poverty alleviation. This is done by converting local plants (medicinal) and local foods into value-added products based on assured and remunerative market linkages. According to India's top agro scientist Professor M S Swaminathan-- such sustainable and equitable use of biodiversity leads to an era of bio happiness in rural and urban India through the conversion of bio resources into jobs and income. Biodiversity conservation can thus be the mantra for development of the poor section of the society.
22 Aug 2012 - 9:27pm | editor
Once again Merapani falls in the deep grip of tension when unidentified miscreants burnt down a house on Tuesday. The incident took place at Garhbasti along the Assam-Nagaland border where owner of...
11 May 2021 - 7:31am | Maksam Tayeng
PASIGHAT: The village youths of Borguli village under Mebo Sub-Division led by Siyar Sirum (name of a same age group youths) along with three other age groups conducted a daylong cleanliness drive in...
5 Oct 2012 - 11:13pm | Anup Biswas
The Assam Rifles troops averted a major security breach when they recovered and defused a grenade in Haflong town on Friday morning stated AR press release. Troops of Haflong based Assam Rifles unit...
1 Jan 2009 - 10:48pm | editor
Two persons died and nine others have been injured when a powerful bomb exploded at Bhagagarh area in the city on Thursday. That too minutes before the arrival of the Union home minister arrived in...
OFT, in the stilly night,Ere slumber's chain has bound me, Fond Memory brings the lightOf other days around me:The smiles, the tearsOf boyhood's years… (The Light of Other Days- Thomas Moore) As I sit down to reminisce my days in school when it completes a monumental journey of fifty years of existence—these lines come back to me bringing along a collage of pictures of different hues strewn across time. I had the privilege to have studied in a Montessori School that in course of time metamorphosed into a full fledged high school and earned the rare recognition of being the first provincialised English medium school in Assam. Kushal Konwar Balya Bhawan, as the school is presently...
Forest guards shot dead a charging adult male rhino in the Agaratoli Range of Kaziranga National Park on September 20. Earlier this year on February 14, a forest guard Gautam Barua, had to meet a terrible fate when he was on duty in the Bagori range of the National Park. He was killed by a charging rhino. In other words, the protector became the victim. Another guard, Podu Rajbongshi survived a similar attack in the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park in the last week of January. The year 2016 also saw similar incidents. Francis Horo, working with the forest department, died in an attack by wild buffalo on January 16 in the Bagori range of Kaziranga National Park while Sariful Islam, a forest...
The recent wave of flood in Assam left a trail of devastation affecting a total population of 33, 45,442 people and taking a toll of more than 150 lives. However, unofficial sources claim the death of more than 200 people in the recent deluge. Incessant rains since the first week of July coupled by dam-induced flood claimed 84 lives. The second bout of flood proved a disaster to the state; humans, animals including wildlife being washed away; millions of people displaced; thousands of hectares of standing crops destructed. Embankments were breached in 26 places in 15 districts. The Assam State Disaster Management Authority put the number of flood-hit people taking shelter in 923 relief...
The shrieking crescendo calls of the Koel and the flowering of ‘Kopou’ are harbingers of spring signaling the dawn of a new year in the Brahmaputra valley. The season sees the ubiquitous orchids with bright and heavy blossoms, varying in colors, bejewel the wilderness of the Northeast. ‘Kopou Phul’ is the most sought after orchid in Assam during New Year festivities in April. Assamese women adorn the pink flowers with deep pink spot as ornamentation on their head during celebration of ‘Rongali Bihu’. Found in North East as well as South India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Java and Philippines--‘Kopou Phul’ or ‘Seeta Pushpa’ in Sanskrit, Ryncostylists retusa is...
“Brahmaputra on one way sacred, one way trouble maker,” this was the observation made by the 14thDalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso in Dibrugarh during his recent tour of Assam. During an interaction programme with students of the Dibrugarh University in the University auditorium on April 3, the Tibetan spiritual leader said that due to global warming there are more glacial melt in the Himalayan ranges. “In today’s world we face increasing natural disasters, including earthquakes, due to the effects of climate change. Yesterday in Guwahati I attended the Namami Brahmaputra Festival celebrating the sacredness of that great river, but we know it also has a tendency to flood.” “Because of global warming...
The Northeast forms a complex geomorphology with vast flood plains, valleys, hills and ridges of varying elevations, beels (wetlands) and swamp areas with presence of large number of avifaunal diversity. The mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries serve as the winter visiting ground to many migratory birds. From the marshes of Kaziranga to the forests of Eaglenest in western Arunachal and further up to the alpine areas of Arunachal -- one come across more than 750 species of birds that includes most of the winter visitors. Assam, along with the other six northeastern states, shares a common migration route for many of the avifauna that flies over Bhutan, Tibet, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh...
The Northeast forms a complex geomorphology with vast flood plains, valleys, hills and ridges of varying elevations, beels (wetlands) and swamp areas with presence of large number of avifaunal diversity. The mighty Brahmaputra and its tributaries serve as the winter visiting ground to many migratory birds. From the marshes of Kaziranga to the forests of Eaglenest in western Arunachal and further up to the alpine areas of Arunachal -- one come across more than 750 species of birds that includes most of the winter visitors. Assam, along with the other six northeastern states, shares a common migration route for many of the avifauna that flies over Bhutan, Tibet, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh...
An ideal habitat for the breeding of rhinos, Kaziranga has seen a rise in the number of the species. The animal shrugged off its ‘endangered’ tag as soon as its population crossed the 2000 mark. This fuelled an overweening strategy--the much hyped Indian Rhino Vision -- that targeted 3,000 rhinos by the year 2020 in the rhino-bearing sanctuaries of Assam. However, with the number of this pre-historic pachyderm crossing the 2,500 mark, a host of challenges also came to the fore, poaching being only one of the concerns. Kaziranga has been plagued by other challenges like-- shrinking of the habitat, encroachment of the corridors around the Park, siltation of the water bodies and a complete...
The Manas National Park and Tiger Reserve suffered huge loss as flood waters of river Beki inundated 60 per cent of the Park since the last four days. Floodwaters entered the Park breaching the embankment at Panchmile under the Bansbari Range and submerged large areas of National Park on Wednesday night. The release of waters from the Kurichu dam by Bhutan has been attributed to the untimely disaster. “The waters have receded now but have left a trail of devastation. The flood breached the embankment at three sites making the Park all the more vulnerable, besides damaging most of the roads making movement almost impossible,” Dharanidhar Boro, deputy director of the Park said. “The bridge at...
At the prestigious India Today PSU Awards 2014, the Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) was awarded the ‘Most Eco-Friendly Public Sector Unit (PSU) in the Miniratna category. It was stated that the award assumes a great deal of significance since the selection process included all the 229 PSUs nationwide in the fray and is, therefore, a befitting recognition of the innovative, sincere and dedicated efforts of the company towards preservation and conservation of the ecology and the environment.A year later NRL was once again in news—this time for sending rare and Scheduled I species to death throes! The anti-conservation strategy and gross violation of environmental norms by the company drew...
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