International Day For Biological Diversity-2015

Chandigarh, May 31, 2015: Centre for Industry Institute Partnership Programme (CIIPP), Panjab University (PU),Chandigarh, India, in association with Research Promotion Cell, PU and Punjab Biodiversity Board, Chandigarh, on Saturday celebrated the International Biodiversity day in the Seminar Hall of Department of Microbiology, PU, South Campus, Sector-25, Chandigarh with the theme “Biodiversity for Sustainable Development”. The celebration was sponsored by Punjab Biodiversity Board, Chandigarh. 

As many as 90 participants from PU and neighboring institutes participated in the day long function, which started at 10 AM on Friday.  The event commenced with the welcome address by Coordinator, PU Research Promotion Cell, Prof. Sanjay Chhibber, who highlighted the importance of Biodiversity Act of 2002 and made the audience aware about the directive from University Grants Commission to strictly adhere to the provisions of Biodiversity Act which covers conservation, use of biological resources occurring in India for commercial or research purposes or for the purposes of bio-survey and bio-utilisation.

This was followed by the keynote address by Professor in the PU Department of Botany, Dr. Daizy Rani Batish. She started her address with highlighting the significance of celebrating International Day for Biological diversity which came into existence on May 22, 2000 to commemorate the existence of diverse life on earth and to make people realize its importance for the survival of the mankind.  She compared the biodiversity with the gold mine which has become important for sustainable development.

Prof. Batish emphasized on proper use of resources being made available by Biodiversity and highlighted the significance of the raw materials provided by the nature for the existence of plants, animals and microorganisms which make the biodiversity and stressed the need to reduce their misuse.  Her talk was very interactive, fruitful and well responded by the audience. Further she introduced the legal instruments to protect the biodiversity at International and National level. In her talk she also elaborated the audience about the Biological Diversity Act 2002 of India which provides a framework for access to biological resources and sharing the benefits arising out of such access and use.

The function concluded with the vote of thanks by PU CIIPP, Director, Prof. S.K. Soni, who also reiterated the importance of Biodiversity for the sustainability of mankind on this planet. He also made the audience aware about its jurisdiction of Biological Diversity Act and cautioned about the clauses applicable to researchers of the Universities/Colleges and Research Institutes.    

The function ended with a pledge to conserve biodiversity for its meaningful utilization in research and sustainable development of the society during 21st century as per the provisions in Biological Diversity Act. / (SK Vyas, Jalandhar)