Taxonomy should be revived for study of bio-diversity: Aziz

Kochi, Sept 25 (UNI) In a bid to support the study of bio-diversity, Vice-Chancellor of Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) Dr P K Abdul Aziz today urged the government and institutions concerned to give due importance to taxonomy in the country.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the two-day workshop on Biogeographic Information System for Indian Ocean (IndOBIS) here, Dr Aziz said, there was a serious dearth of taxonomists who can identify and classify our bio-diversity with authority.

He said the government and the authorities concerned should chalk out policies to revive the science of taxonomy as the current scenario is detrimental to the study of bio-diversity in the country.

''The bio-diversity of the planet is under-explored and under-exploited as the scientists were still to unravel the mysteries of 70 to 90 per cent of the living organisms on earth,'' Dr Aziz noted.

He said the bio-diversity was the largest 'life-support ssystem' and the research ecinetists should prepare a comprehensive date base documenting the ecosystem of the nature.

Dr Aziz also urged the goverment to establish a national repository of collected species of living organisms from the Indian Ocean.

The country with cutting-egde technology in science should be able to docemnet the bio-deiversity of the Indian Ocean, he added.

IndOBIS is one of the seven regional nodes established by the Ocean Biogeographic Information System with reponsiblities of collecting, collating and disseminating of date and information on the Biodiversity in the Indian Ocean region.

Chairman of National Biodiversity Authority Dr S Kannaiyan said proper databases should be made available to understand the bio-diversity in the context of global and biological invasion.

He said in a group of georeferenced biological database, Global Biodiversity Information Facility has 179 data providers and nore than 100 million records on marine and land organisms.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in 1992 in Brazil was a landmark in the environment and development as it takes for the first time a comprehensive rather than a sectoral approach to the conservation of earth's bio-diversity and sustainable use of biological resources, he added.

The agreement came into force in 1993 and 173 countries, including India are part of the deal to conserve the bio-diversity of the earth.

Dr D Chandramohan, member of International Scientific Steering Committee of Census of Marine Life, Dr J K Sharma, Director of Bio-diversity Board and other senior marine scientists were also present on the occasion.

UNI MA1525