ABDUL WAHAB KHAN | NT
Staff Reporter
PANAJI
Rachol, a historical hamlet in the Salcete taluka situated along the banks of Zuari river, will soon become the first village in the state to have people’s biodiversity register.
According to the Goa State Biodiversity Board, preparation of registers, which are formulated under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, will be completed very soon in other local bodies of Velim, Penha de Franca, Morjim, Chandor, Loliem, Cotigao and Bhironda.
The biodiversity management committee of the Rachol panchayat took three months to prepare the register.
The Rachol document has been prepared by engaging students, NGO workers and community members with technical guidance from Fine Envirotech, an environmental consultant for private and governmental projects.
The GSBB will soon form an expert committee to scrutinise and validate the information recorded in the documents and also assess in terms of factual validity and cross-check against other scientific evidence to incorporate it in a comprehensive biodiversity information system. It will act as a baseline data for the management strategies required for sustainable utilisation of biodiversity in a decentralised manner.
Elated by the feat of the Rachol panchayat, a member secretary of the board Pradeep Sarmokadam said that they are really surprised by enthusiasm of Rachol villagers.
Now any manufacturing unit wanting to commercially extract resources in the village will have to seek panchayat’s nod and share financial benefits.
“It is the duty of the committees to prepare the registers… So far, 83 per cent of the local bodies in the state have formed BMCs and 11-12 of these panels have initiated the process of preparing the register,” he said.
He hoped that the board would receive the Rachol PBR report by the end of this month for validation.
The village panchayats of Velim, Penha de Franca, Morjim, Chandor, Loliem, Bhironda and Cotigao will follow suit.
Details with regard to the present status of endemic flora and fauna; traditional knowledge and customs; geography; ongoing changes and forces driving changes in biodiversity resources, and people’s perceptions of how these resources should be managed are recorded in the register.
Sarmokadam, however, admitted that there has been delay in preparation of registers in some local bodies.
“There are issues in some local bodies. We have constituted technical support groups to provide assistance and training to committee members who have been entrusted with the task of PBR preparation. We have also urged the local bodies to hasten the process,” he said.
