President to inaugurate World Lake Conference at Jaipur

New Delhi, Oct 27 (UNI) President Pratibha Devisingh Patil will inaugurate the five-day 12th World Lake Conference -- TAAL 2007 -- at Jaipur on Monday.

Ms Patil will arrive in Jaipur on the evening of October 28 and return to the capital the next day after inaugurating the Conference.

This will be the President's first visit to Rajasthan since she was sworn-in in July this year. Ms Patil was the Governor of Rajasthan before she was elected as the country's President.

The conference, to be attended by experts from around the world, will discuss ways in which lakes can be conserved.

This is the first time that this conference is being held in the South Asian region. It will provide a unique platform for interaction between scientists, researchers, technologists and policy makers from different parts of the world.

The conference, being hosted by the Environment and Forests Ministry with support from the Rajasthan Government, comprises many plenary lectures, technical sessions, keynote addresses on various sectional things by eminent scientists, oral presentations, poster sessions and working group discussions, together with a programme of socio-cultural events.

The five major themes of the conference are: Science and Lakes; Conservation and Management; Special Group of Lakes; Socio-Economic Aspects and Special Sessions.

A wide range of aspects will be covered in various sessions.

These are bio-diversity and conservation, lake catchments, lake eco-system process, invasive species and wind control, lake wetlands and climate change, fisheries, bio-remediation and bio-manipulation, Lake Littoral Zone Management, hydrology and eco-hydrology and legal as well regulatory frameworks.

A biennial event, these conferences are organised under the aegis of the International Lake Environment Committee Foundation (ILEC), Japan since 1985.

Participants from Russia, Australia, Austria, The Netherlands, China, Denmark, Zimbabwe, Italy, Canada, the US, Philippines, the Czech Republic, Poland and Japan will attend the conference.

UNI