"A
lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is
earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own
nature."
-- Henry David Thoreau,
Walden Pond
As
one of the 12 mega centers of biodiversity, the biological wealth in Indian
region is estimated to have over 45,000 plants and 65,000 animal species.
There is an abundance of wild relatives of food crops, cereals, mallets,
leguminous crops, vegetables, oil seeds, spices and condiments in India.
About 60 of the 250 wild crop relatives in India are either rare or threatened.
Biological resources once lost cannot be replaced at any cost. Plant biodiversity
as a national and global resource is extremely valuable, but is poorly
understood, inadequately documented and often wasted. The preservation
of biodiversity is both a matter of Investment and insurance to:
- Sustain and improve agricultural, forestry and fisheries production.
- Act as a buffer against harmful environmental changes,
- Provide raw materials for scientific and industrial innovations; and
- Safeguard transferring the biological Richness to posterity.
Biodiversity
the world over is in peril 'because the habitats are threatened due to
such development programs as, creation of reservoirs, mining, forest clearing,
laying of transport and communication networks, etc.
Over the last 12000 years of evolution of agriculture practices, the S & T inputs have only succeeded in evolving just about 10% of the genetic stock found in the wild into palatable and higher yielding cereals, fruits and vegetables. For security demands that the remaining 90% of the stock should be preserved: Firstly, for developing additional higher yielding varieties to feed the increasing population and Secondly; to protect and provide immunity to the existing higher yielding varieties when they under attack from insects, pests and epidemics -
Rice originated in India along southern and northern slopes of Himalayas about 15,000 years ago. Almost 120,000 cultivators are estimated exhibiting great diversity in the region of Assam, Meghalaya to mountain ranges of south-west China and south-east Asia. Until recently 30,000 rice varieties were being grown by Indian farmers which are feared to be reduced to just 50 by the year 2000. Nevertheless. India has made significant contributions through the development of resistant cultivar IR-36 also by saving rice crops against Grassy Stunt Virus and Grass Hopper disease by providing immunity through Oryza nivara (Central India) and Pitambi rice (Silent Valley). The continuous dwindling of the rice varieties is a cause of concern and needs to be arrested.
Realizing the importance of Genetic Stock for food security, the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources of ICAR has long been identifying areas rich in bio-diversity and Gene Pool for cereals, fruits and vegetables. Not withstanding the ban on export of 29 endangered medicinal plants, we need to protect our rich heritage of herbs, shrubs & medicinal plants. Bio-Banks created has seed as well as tissue samples of the requisite crops. There is, however, still need to establish centers for in-situ as well as ex-situ conservation of bio-diversity especially in the wake of the International Convention on Bio-diversity to which India is a signatory. "Recombinant DNA safety Guidelines" for personnel and environmental safety in the use of genetically manipulated organisms in research, manufacture and applications have been evolved.
Declaration of eco-sensitive zones, introduction of Biological Diversity Act and other initiatives are expected to help in conservation & sustainable use of biological resources.
Write to :
PRATIDAN,
A-801, La-place, Shahnazaf Road,
Lucknow-226001 (INDIA)
Phone: 00-91-522-217875
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