Team Herald
preserve and promote sustainable utilization of natural resources and that it would hamper development.
Emphasizing the need to monitor and preserve natural habitats, Sawant stated that the committee formed under UNJEF would receive Rs 70 lakh to protect and preserve the bio diversity. He also hoped the committee would manage to bring back fading resources like Tissrio.
Sawant said the GSBB would support the new committee’s endeavours, provided it took the villagers into confidence and sought their suggestions on key issues in the village.
Regarding the Board’s orientation workshops with panchayats in the past, Sawant pointed out that they had already set up 60 such panchayat committees, while there were 130 more to go. He said it was one of the mandates of the Act and the board was only implementing it.
He stated that the next task was to make them public through a biodiversity register and that some of the villagers had nearly completed the same.
He added that the biodiversity committees had started maintaining a register of all species present in their villages and the same could be used as means of conserving traditional knowledge.
Velim Sarpanch Melwyn Sanchez thanked those who supported the initiative and promised to help the new committee
