Southern states for joint action to conserve bio-diversity

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 4 (UNI) A conference of the Forest Ministers of the Southern States has decided to work together for joint actions in patrolling, raids and organising protection camps to protect and conserve the precious bio-diversity of the forests and wildlife of the region.

Briefing mediapersons on the conclusion of the two-day conference, Kerala Forest Minister Binoy Viswom and his Karnataka counterpart C Chennegappa said steps would be taken jointly to check ganja cultivation and protect the valuable tree species like sandalwood and red sanders and important wild animals like tigers and elephants.

The conference urged the Centre to exempt forest departments from paying licence fee for using wireless services and waiving of existing arrears.

Forest department heads of the Southern States would meet once in a year and Conservator of Forests and District Forest Officers of border areas would meet at least once in every six months for regular exchange of information on forest and wildlife offences, crime records, checking sandalwood, red sanders and wildlife smuggling and fixing boundaries after resurvey, they said.

The Ministers said a separate cell for each state and a common secretariat for all the states would be set up for the joint activities of the forest departments in South India.

In order to provide due importance and recognition to forestry and wildlife, the Chief Ministers would be requested to urge the Prime Minister to convene a conference of the Chief Ministers and Forest Ministers of all the states and Union Territories.

The objective of such a conference is to discuss the challenges faced by the wildlife protection regions and ensuring the availability of desired level of funding and institutional support from the Centre to the state governments, they added.

The conference also decided to conduct regular meets of the Forest Ministers and forest officials of the Southern states once in an year in rotation in each state. The next meeting would be hosted by Karnataka at Bangalore.

The two-day conference was attended by Andhra Pradesh Forest and Industries Minister Vijayarama Raju Sathrucharla, Tamil Nadu Forest Minister N Selvaraj and Karnataka Forest Minister C Chennigappa.

UNI CGV1833