India has the potential to lead the world in biodiversity
- It is the quantity and diversity of living things found in a certain area of the world.
- It encompasses all kinds of plants, animals, and microorganisms, as well as the genes they carry and the environments they create.
- It has to do with the diversity of life on Earth, encompassing the diversity within and between species as well as the diversity within and between the ecosystems they generate.
30 by 30 Promise:
- Representatives from 188 nations came to a consensus in December 2022 to “halt and reverse” the loss of biodiversity by preserving 30% of the world’s land and 30% of its oceans by the year 2030.
- At now, 17% of the world’s population lives there, and 17% of its area is home to biodiversity hotspots.
- India can lead the world to become champions of biodiversity.
Potentially strong programmes:
- “Green Growth” was listed as one of the seven priorities, or Saptarishis, in the Union Budget 2023.
- The National Mission for a Green India seeks to preserve existing wooded areas while promoting forest cover on damaged areas.
- “Incentives for environmentally sustainable and responsive actions by companies, individuals, and local bodies” is the stated goal of the Green Credit Programme.
- The remarkable significance of mangroves and coastal ecosystems in mitigating climate change makes the Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes (MISHTI) noteworthy.
- For our agriculture to survive, the Prime Minister Programme for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother Earth (PM-PRANAM) is essential for lowering inputs of synthetic fertilisers and pesticides.
- “Encourage optimal use of wetlands, and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism opportunities and income generation for local communities” is how the Amrit Dharohar scheme puts it, and it explicitly cites our biological richness.
- It is promising that the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change has decided to halt the drainage of Uttar Pradesh’s Haiderpur Ramsar wetland in order to protect migratory waterfowl.
How ought these programmes to be put into action?
- The effectiveness of initiatives and the recording and distillation of lessons learned for replication, both nationally and internationally, depend heavily on an inclusive, science-based monitoring strategy.
- Modern ideas of sustainability and ecosystem valuation that take into account the ecological, cultural, and sociological components of our biological richness should be properly incorporated into new objectives and programmes.
- Multiple sustainable bioeconomies could greatly benefit from prioritising the advantages to “resource people” and fund-services (rather than stock-flows) as the economic foundation for generating value.
- The Green India Mission’s execution ought to prioritise ecological restoration over the planting of trees.
- Select locations where it can enhance biological connectedness in environments where linear infrastructure has left gaps.
- The existing data and information on resilience under the effects of coming climate change, as well as the trade-offs and synergies with regard to hydrologic services, should guide the choice of species and density.
- Since coastal mudflats and salt pans are particularly crucial for biodiversity, site selection for the mangrove project should also be carefully studied, with a focus on the diversity of mangrove species and preservation of the integrity of these natural areas.
- The local and nomadic populations where these ideas will be implemented must be included in all of these activities.
- It is important to incorporate these communities’ traditional knowledge and traditions into the implementation strategies.
The Way Ahead:
- India’s biological wealth would benefit greatly from the focus on green growth, since the nation is rapidly losing its natural resources, including its soils, land, water, and biodiversity.
- Amrit Dharohar will enhance aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services because of its focus on sustainability through the balancing of conflicting demands.
- The ability to maintain natural flows by reducing water use in important industries like agriculture will determine the fate of our wetland ecosystems in the future.
- promoting the switch to less water-intensive crops, like millets
- investments made in urban water recycling that combine blue-green and grey infrastructure.
- If each of these initiatives is carried out using the most recent ecological and scientific information, the biodiversity of our country might be considerably improved.
- In order to evaluate India’s biological riches objectively and raise awareness of it, major money for research and education should be included in every initiative.
- The government will initiate the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing right away. It was already approved by the PM-STIAC, the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council.
- The goal of this mission is to maximise the potential of transdisciplinary knowledge.
- Replenish and improve our natural resources for the benefit of our people.
- Establish India as a leader in applied biodiversity science worldwide.
