The government Wednesday constituted J&K Bio-Diversity Council to document biodiversity of the Union Territory, by maintaining Peoples Biodiversity Register (PBR) with the help of representatives from local governance bodies.
The Council will be headed by Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, J&K Mohit Gera with five ex-officio members and five others as non-official members, as per an order issued by General Administration Department (GAD).The term of office of the non-official members of the council will be for a period of three years.
The Council will constitute a fund after concurrence of Finance department which will be known as “Jammu and Kashmir Biodiversity Council Fund” and all the fees, charges and benefit sharing amount received by the Council will be credited to it.
The Council will function in consultation with National Biodiversity Authority, reads the GAD order. The process to maintain PBR will be been started in every Panchayat and municipal committee and series of meetings were being organized in almost all Panchayats of Jammu and Kashmir, said an official.
He said the work conducted will be monitored at three levels – National Biodiversity Authority Headquartered in Chennai, J&K Bio-Diversity Council and Panchayat and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) (Bio-Diversity committees).
The committees will be set up in all the Panchayats and ULBs, except seven ULB in Kashmir which have remained unfilled due to “certain reasons.”
“Now, we have to register our bio-diversity in People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) and the process will begun after the constitution of BMC at Panchayat and ULs level which is the main source of conservation and sustainable harvest of biodiversity,” said the official.