Southern States for joint action to conserve bio-diversity

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

Talking to newspersons here today, after 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 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 off existing arrears.

The forest departments of South would meet once in a year and Conservator of Forests and District Forest Officers of border areas, would meet once in every six months for exchange of information on forest and wildlife offences, crime records, checking sandalwood, red sanders and wildlife smuggling and fixing boundaries after re-survey, they said.

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

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 was 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 meetings of the Forest Ministers and forest officials of South, once in an year. The next meeting would be hosted by Karnataka.

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.

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