Workshop on biodiversity held in Ahmedabad

A two-day state-level orientation workshop was conducted in the city to implement the 'National Environment Awareness Campaign'. The workshop began on Friday.

Organised by ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) and Viksat (Vikram Sarabhai Centre for Development Interaction) of Nehru Foundation for Development, the workshop was held at Centre for Environment Education (CEE). The theme of the workshop this year is 'Biodiversity conservation'.

A total of 486 organisations from Gujarat, Diu and Daman  are participating in the workshop. They include NGOs, education and training institutions, professional organisations and scientific bodies.

"Some 250 organisations from various districts of the state were called today and the remaining will be called on Saturday. This has been done to make the workshop more effective through interaction," said Vijay Kaushal, programme coordinator.

Director of CEE, Kartikeya Sarabhai, said, "It's a part of our Indian culture to conserve biodiversity. Feeding grain to birds using chabutaras is an example."

Sarabhai added that our Constitution has a provision whereby every citizen is duty-bound to conserve nature.

He also stressed the importance of biodiversity and said, "The raw material for 80% of our medicines comes from the forest. So, it becomes necessary to save and further develop our forests as health sector depends on them."

At the end of the first day of the workshop, several organisations were given grants to conduct the awareness programme within one month.