The Hindu : Biodiversity Authority for Chennai soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Biodiversity Authority for Chennai soon

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI June 30. The Union Environment Minister, T.R. Baalu, today said the National Biodiversity Authority, envisaged in the Biodiversity Act, would ``soon'' be set up in Chennai .

The Authority would ensure that stakeholders of traditional knowledge got their rightful share and were not trampled on in the mad rush for commercialising wisdom handed down through generations.

The setting up of the Authority did not mean any significant financial commitment; it was ``more like an office'' dealing with these issues. There could be some redeployment of staff.

The Ministry was also setting up an institute at Kanyakumari to preserve marine and coastal biodiversity, he said. The Rs. 20-crore project would come up depending on when the State Government provided land.

Mr. Baalu said the National Forest Commission had been set up with Justice V.N. Kirpal as chairman, to look into problems in effective implementation of the Forest Act. The former Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary, A.P. Muthusamy, was named a member.

As part of the plan to ensure protection and regeneration of forests, the Ministry had cleared 18 projects, costing Rs. 53.34 crores. The total area covered would be 33,540 hectares. In Tamil Nadu, the Ministry cleared four projects, aimed at saving elephants. Project Elephant would be implemented in the Nilgiris, the Anamalai hills and Srivilliputhur.

Between October 1999 and June 2003, the Union Government had cleared 590 projects, 126 of them in Tamil Nadu. Also, as part of the scheme to ensure that sewage was not dumped in rivers, treatment facilities were being set up in 157 towns, on the banks of 31 identified and polluted rivers spread across 18 States. The Tenth Plan allocation for this was Rs.1,825 crores.

In Tamil Nadu, 13 towns were covered under the project. The Union Government had set apart Rs. 809 crores and the State Government was expected to chip in with Rs. 293 crores.

When all projects under the lake and river clean-up schemes were taken into account, the total project cost would be Rs. 1,111 crores, Mr. Baalu said. Of this, the Union Government had so far sanctioned only Rs.177 crores, as the progress of works in the State was slow. But the project would have to be completed by September 2003.

Appealing that politics be set aside, Mr. Baalu said cleaning up of Chennai's waterways and other rivers in the State was a long-standing demand of the people here. ``I appeal with folded hands that those in authority take steps to speed up the work. Otherwise, Tamil Nadu will be the loser''.

The Minister was addressing the press after inaugurating a two-day workshop on `Wildlife conservation in India: Challenges and Initiatives,' organised here by his Ministry and the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore.

Speaking after the inauguration, he said man-animal conflicts occurred in forest interface areas because of human activity.

This year, about 200 persons were killed in attacks by wild animals. This was one of the issues the workshop should examine, said Mr. Baalu.

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