Tamil Nadu - Kancheepuram   

Training programme stresses on bio-diversity conservation

V. Venkatasubramanian

Camp exposes students to India's rich bio-heritage

VACATION CAMP: S. Seshadri, deputy director, AMM Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre, conducting a vacation training programme for schoolchildren at Vadakadumbadi. — Photo: A. Muralitharan

KANCHEEPURAM: It was a vacation camp with a difference. It was an opportunity for the group of 30 students to realise that their country was not only rich in culture and heritage but also in bio-resources.

The students, from 15 higher secondary schools in and around Chennai and from Sri Akhilandeshwari Vidyalaya, Tiruvanaikoil, near Tiruchi, participated in a vocation training programme at Vadakadambadi village, near Mamallapuram, on May 12. A routine vacation camp, they thought. But their interest was kindled when they were provided glimpses of India's rich and varied heritage of biodiversity, encompassing a wide spectrum of habitats from tropical rainforests to alpine vegetation and from temperate forests to coastal wetlands.

Their interest grew further when the faculty members of the training programme, conducted by the A.M.M. Murugappa Chettiar Research Centre, Taramani, Chennai, in association with the Department of Biotechnology and National Bio-resources Development Board, highlighted the fact that India had 26 recognised endemic centres that were home to nearly a third of all the flowering plants identified and described in the world.

India's significant contribution in latitudinal biodiversity trend, accounting for 7.31 per cent of global fauna in spite of having a mere 2.4 per cent of the world's area, made them eager to learn more about the country's rich biodiversity.

Inaugurating the programme, R. Ranjit Daniels, director, CARE EARTH, Chennai, spoke on the need for biodiversity conservation and shared his experience on the Nilgiri Thar diversity analysis and research studies on the Western Ghats.

The main objectives of the programme is to make the younger generation realise the value of biological resources, understand the importance of locally available bio-resources, their sustainability and conservation, said S. Seshadri, Deputy Director, MCRC, Taramani.

Guest lectures by teaching faculties from University of Madras, Anna University, Zoological Survey of India, MSSRF and Institute of Ornithology, Rishi Valley School, Andhra Pradesh, were arranged apart from allowing the participants to take up "do it yourself exercises" such as enumeration of flora and fauna, soil classification, organic farming and plant tissue culture said course coordinator V. Chakrapani.

The training programme will conclude on June 11.

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Training programme stresses on bio-diversity conservation

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