By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 9 Sep: ICAR-Indian Institute of Soil and Water Conservation organised Himalaya Diwas for conservation of biodiversity through a plantation drive here, today, at Shivalik Anusuchit Janjati Adarsh Vidhyalaya at Shahpur-Kalyanpur, Vikasnagar.
In this programme, 150 plants of melia, drumstick, lime and bael were distributed to the farmers for planting and conservation of biodiversity of the Himalaya. The students of Shivalik School expressed their thoughts through a drawing competition on the various aspects of Himalaya to save and conserve biodiversity. The winners of the drawing competition were presented prizes.
The Himalaya Diwas was inaugurated by Dr M Madhu, Director, ICAR-IISWC, who emphasised planting of trees, converting domestic green waste into vermi-compost, cleaning of school and house premises, and also looking after the planted trees in their houses on routine basis which would be helpful in conserving biodiversity of the Himalayas. He also spoken on conservation of rainwater and roof water harvesting and recycling of conserved water for irrigation of the plants planted by them.
Dr Charan Singh, Head of Plant Science Division, narrated the importance of plantation on field boundaries and degraded lands. He underlined that the Himalaya is a rich source of herbal medicines, water, forest, glaciers, lakes, rivers, minerals, tourism, etc. These legacies of the Himalaya need protection and conservation for the future generations.
On this occasion, Dr AC Rathore, Principal Scientist, gave a talk on physiography, demography, environmental status of Himalaya which stretches from Jammu & Kashmir to Arunachal Pradesh and covers about 2500 kilometres spread over 11 states, 2 union territories of India and seven countries of Asia. The Himalaya also acts as an oxygen bank for the different continents of the world.
Ramesh Saini, member of Zila Panchayat, and Satish Kumar, Principal of Shivalik School, spoke on various aspects of biodiversity conservation, income generating activities, agricultural equipment and implements which have been provided by the ICAR-IISWC, Dehradun. Both speakers appreciated the introduction of strawberry, an income earning activity, crop cafeteria, trellis system to improve their living standards, health and livelihood security of tribal farmers and their families.
Scientists Dr JMS Tomar, Dr J Jayaprakash, Dr R Kaushal, Dr Anupam Barh and ACTO Rakesh Kumar and other staff (Abhisekh Pundir, Sunil Kumar, Ravi, Deepak) and students and 150 farm families from Shahpur-Kalyanpur village participated.
