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Vol -3 No-3 e-NEWSLETTER December 2012

Chairman’s desk

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I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year – 2013. The year 2012 is of great importance both for India and the West Bengal Biodiversity Board (WBBB). Being a mega-biodiverse country, India’s response to lead global meet - the Eleventh Conference of Parties(CoP-11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity from 8-19 October, 2012 in Hyderabad, during the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity (UNDB, 2011-2020), has been well recognized. The members of WBBB, practitioners in conservation and develop-ment, are happy and inspired after their active participation in this important event.

A Ministerial dialogue on ‘Biodiversity and Livelihoods’ was the prime topic of discussion in this Conference. Approximately 6000 delegates representing 193 countries participated in the meeting. The conference adopted 33 decisions on the issues relating to the status of the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing (ABS); implementation of the Strategic Plan 2011- 2020 and the Strategy for Resource Mobilization to achieve the Aichi biodiversity targets. The delegates also addressed many other issues like financial mechanism; cooperation; marine and coastal biodiversity; biodiversity and climate change; biodiversity and de-velopment; and several ecosystem-related and other issues. The Board is also making sincere efforts in implementation of many of the issues discussed in CoP-XI, particularly of the Nagoya Protocol on ABS. The Board is one of the five States in India where the studies on ABS with financial assistance from UNEP-GEF Fund has been initiated.

It is well recognized that the knowledge of biodiversity and aware-ness about its importance is still insufficient. The Board is paying special attention in evolving new methods of imparting knowledge of biodiversity to the people and has decided to start training course to develop village level para-taxonomists.

The present issue contains two articles - related to livelihood devel-opment through sustainable utilization of bioresources and aware-ness generation on the national aquatic animal – the Gangetic Dol-phin. I sincerely thank Prof. Joydeep Mukherjee, Jadavpur Univer-sity and Dr. Sangeeta Mitra, WWF-India for their cooperation in enriching the issue with their articles. I am happy that this newslet-ter has come out in time for which I express thanks and best wishes to all my colleagues specially Dr. Anirban Roy and Mrs. Tuli Ban-dopadhyay in the Board.

—— Dr. A.K. Sanyal

WEST BENGAL BIODIVERSITY BOARD (Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal)

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Special articles in this issue: 1. Microbes of the Sundarbans: a new opportunity for biotech nology? Dr. Joydeep Mukherjee (Page no. –7) 2. Ganges river dolphins in

India- Dr. Sangeeta Mitra (Page no. - 10)

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PBR workshop at Kulpi Block, 24 Parganas(S) PBR workshop at Sainthia Municipality, Birbhum

The Board has its prime concern, as per the Biological Diversity Act is to facilitate the constitution of Biodi-versity Management Committee (BMC) and subsequently preparation of People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR). Under the reporting period (October-December, 2012) the initiatives of the Board towards this di-rection are : BMC Constitution: In Medinipur Municipality, Paschim Medinipur & Arsha Block, Purulia. Till December, 2012 a total of 49

BMCs have been constituted in West Bengal. A meeting of the Board officials and Chairman of the Khardah Municipality was held on 29th of Novem-

ber, 2012 in regard to facilitate the constitution of BMC. PBR Workshops - In Sainthia Municipality, Birbhum District & Kulpi Block, South 24 Parganas. PBR Monitoring - Monitoring of activities for PBR preparation was held in the following places — i) Ramnagar-I P.S. (6th & 21st November) ii) Patashpur-I P.S. (7th & 22nd November) iii)Gosaba P.S. (10th November) iv) Bidhan Nagar Municipality (27th November) v) Bolpur-Sriniketan Block (3rd December) Regulatory Activities: NOC given for access to bioresources for commercial utilization-4 . The Board officials visited Beston Herbal Pvt. Ltd. in regard to renew the NOC for commercial uti- lization of the bioresources. Awareness Programmes: A seminar on biodiversity was attended by Board officials on October 4, 2012 at Raja Pyari Mohan Col-

lege, Uttarpara, Hooghly. A meeting with the Board officials and the farmers regarding the PPV & FR Act and the Biological Diver-

sity Act, 2002 as well at Gosaba, South 24 Parganas was held on 10th of November, 2012. Board officials attended an awareness programme organised by Digha Women Welfare Society on 21st

of November, 2012.

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The Chairman , WBBB participated in a live discussion on “Panchayat and Biodiversity Conservation in West Bengal” on FM Rainbow, Akashvani, Kolkata for about an our on 24th November, 2012.

Chairman, WBBB delivered inaugural address in an international seminar on “Biodiversity and food se-curity” held at BCKV, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal on 7th December, 2012.

Chairman, WBBB visited Sagar Island, South 24 - Parganas, West Bengal on 8th December, 2012 to re-view the progress of work done by Paribesh Unnayn Parishad (PUP) under the project ‘Documentation of village level Bioresources of 7(seven) villages of Mooriganga-I G.P. for proper conservation & sus-tainable use’ financed by WBBB. PUP has initiated the program involving the local people, started plantation, collected 18 rice varieties and attempt to develop a butterfly park has been taken up. Chair-man also visited the activity sites of SEED (Society for Socioeconomic & Ecological Development), Rad-hakrishnapur, Sagar Island and met Lodha tribal people and discussed the possibility of undertaking a program on utilization of local bioresources specially crab towards livelihood development.

Chairman, WBBB was invited by the department of the Forest, Govt. of West Bengal to deliver a talk on Biodiversity and to act as Judge in a debate competition on the topic “Biodiversity Conservation – Fashion or Necessity”.

Miscelleneous Activity: Research Activity: Project report submitted - Final report of the project namely Study of Aquatic Biodiversity of some selected wetlands of Murshidabad district with special reference to habitat conditions. Board Meeting: 23rd Board Meeting was held on 8th of November, 2012 at Board’s office (Paribesh Bhawan). The mem-bers discussed a number of issues emphasizing on: Infrastructure development of the Board, Undesirable use of zoological specimens in UG syllabi, Progress & constraints of constitution of BMC and preparation of PBR. Besides, the Board was appraised by the Chairman/Member Secretary, regarding the CoP XI, UNEP-GEF project on Development of ABS mechanisms and also of another project on Assessing changes in land use, land cover, species distribution and the ecosystem vulnerability to climate change in the hill region of Darjee-ling Himalayas. An initiative has been taken from this 23rd meeting of the Board to discuss about the out-come of the Board’s sponsored research project which would be delivered by the respective investigators of the projects themselves. In this meeting the investigators have highlighted the findings of the following two projects and discussed thereon. i) Extensive survey of ornamental fish species available in W.B. — implemented by Department of Zoology, University of Calcutta.

Board officials visited biodiversity conservation site at Mooriganga-I G.P. of Sagar Island, 24 Parganas (S)

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ii) A study of wild life biodiversity elements in non-forest man-made ecosystems, traditional man-agement, changing status and conservation model. — implemented by Dept. of Zoology, West Bengal State University.

In connection with preparation of a pictorial document on biodiversity of Rajbhawan campus , Kolkata , WBBB scientists with other outside experts conducted several visits to Rajbhawan campus for collection , observation , recording of ecological data and photography of flora and fauna. The editorial board mem-bers met the authors several times to finalize the document. The manuscript of the document has been submitted to the concerned authority of Rajbhawan. The publication of the book is in progress.

The Senior Research Officer participated in the 2nd Indian Biodiversity Congress in Bangalore from 9th-11th of December, 2012 for presenting the paper, ‘ People’s Biodiversity Register: A promising tool in conservation of biodiversity.

Research fellows of the Board participated in the 2nd Indian Biodiversity Congress and presented their

papers on ‘A comparative study of macrofungal flora between Indian part of Sundarban and other coastal villages’ (by Arun Kr. Dutta, JRF) and ‘Economic services of macrofungi in lateritic region of West Bengal ‘(by Prakash Pradhan, SRF).

The Chairman and the Research Officer of the Board participated the National Biodiversity Congress at

Thiruvananthapuram from 27th - 30th of December, 2012. At the said congress , besides scientific/ tech-nical session, there were several meetings on different issues related to the implementation of the BD Act and Rules among the NBA and State Biodiversity Boards. The main issue of the discussion was the final-ization of guidelines on constitution and function of BMCs. The Board is happy to announce that the 2nd National Biodiversity Congress will be organized at Kolkata by WBBB in October, 2013.

Chairman, WBBB delivered a talk on “Coastal Tourism” in the 2nd Training program on the Integrated

Coastal Zone Management for the officials of Government of West Bengal organized by Zoological survey of India on 16th of December, 2012 at Digha , West Bengal.

Chairman, WBBB visited the activity sites, particularly the habitat of bats identified by the BMC, Madhyamgram , North 24 - Parganas, West Bengal on 23rd December, 2012, which would be considered as the ‘Biodiversity Heritage Site’. He also delivered a lecture on “Conservation of Bats” in a seminar organ-ized by the BMC , Madhyamgram to celebrate the International Year of Bat (2012).

Chairman in ICZM training programme,Digha

Board personnel participated in a training programme on ICZM from 11th-17th of December, 2012 at Digha, organ-ized by Zoological Survey of India. Experts from different fields delivered lectures on coastal management issues in West Bengal.

Chairman, WBBB delivered a talk on “Coastal Tourism” in

the 2nd Training program on the Integrated Coastal Zone Management for the officials of Government of West Ben-gal organized by Zoological survey of India on 16th of De-cember, 2012 at Digha , West Bengal.

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Biodiversity Film Festival

CMS Vatavaran, New Delhi organized in collaboration with WBBB and West Bengal Pollution Control Board a program of Biodiversity Film Festival in Kolkata during December 3 – 7, 2012. Chairman, Mem-ber Secretary and other officials attended the inaugural function at Nandan , Kolkata.

In this connection a Panel Discussion on Challenges to Biodiversity of West Bengal from climate change

was organized on 5th December,2012 . Chairman WBBB was the Chairperson and Dr A. K. Ghosh, Director, ENDEV and former Director, ZSI, Dr Anurag Danda , Head-Climate Adaptation and Sundarbans Landscape WWF - India and Ms. Ajanta Dey, NEWS, Kolkata participated as Panelists and Professor Punyasloke Bhadury, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research-Kolkata coordinated the program.

Board officials organized a quiz contest related to biodiversity with the school children from different schools at Paribesh Bhawan auditorium.

Exhibits related to biodiversity from NBC Inaugural session of the Biodiversity Film Festival in Nandan

Board personnel organizing quiz contest in Biodiversity Film Festival

Panel discussion in Biodiversity Film Festival

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CoP XI, Hyderabad The eleventh Conference of Parties (CoP XI) to the CBD was held in Hyderabad from 8-19 October, 2012. The State Board was invited to attend and showcase the biodiversity of the state in this global event. In order to showcase a cohesive picture of the activities, the State Board arranged for dispensing some materials at the exhibition. A pavilion was provided to the Board, managed by students and volunteers, for displaying differ-ent exhibits e.g. colour dossiers assorted on different aspects of biodiversity of West Bengal , handcrafted ar-tifacts from rural Bengal, take away items made of natural components. The Chairman, Member Secretary and Officers attended the main events, as well as the seminars and other discussion-meetings organized by the National Biodiversity Authority regularly, as side events.

Some moments of CoP-XI, Hyderabad (Board officials in stall of WBBB, rice exhibits by Punjab, token gift from the WBBB to the school children and presentation at seminar hall, from left to right respectively)

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Microbes of the Sundarbans: a new opportunity for biotechnoogy?

Joydeep Mukherjee M. Tech. (Biotechnology) Ph.D. (Engg.) School of Environmental Studies

Jadavpur University

A population of approximately 3.2 million inhabits the Indian Sundarbans. People are poor and they subsist on single crop agriculture, fishing, honey and wood collection from the forests. In the absence of any alternate employment, they depend on traditional skills to earn their livelihood and depend largely on forest resources like firewood, timber wood, honey, beeswax, Golpata and tend to resort to illegal practices like poaching and felling. They collect tiger shrimp seeds in large numbers thereby causing damage to juvenile fish stock and mangroves. Agriculture is highly unbalanced, mostly monoculture and the daily income of the local people involved in agriculture are as low as Rs.5 to Rs.12 per day [1]. Of major economic, environmental and social importance, industrial biotechnology involves the utilization of microorganisms in the production of a wide range of products, including pharmaceuticals, enzymes, foods, beverages, chemical feed stocks and fuels. The worldwide sale of medical and pharmaceutical drugs of micro-bial origin now exceeds US$ 13 billion annually. The global market for industrial enzymes is forecast to reach US$ 3.74 billion by the year 2015 [2]. Is this huge business potential of industrial biotechnology of relevance to the local people of the Sundrabans? In India, public as well as private research funding is now being di-rected to utilize microbial resources for business in biotechnology. A national level project sponsored by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India, on the exploration and exploitation of the microbial wealth of India involves eleven research institutes. In a first-of-its-kind partnership, the Rs. 3000-crore pharma company, Nicholas Piramal has signed an agreement with the Department of Biotechnol-ogy (DBT), Government of India to jointly screen for functional biomolecules from microbes. The project cost is about Rs. 25 crores, of which Rs 17.98 crores will be contributed by DBT and Rs. 6.88 crores by Nicholas Piramal. Although the diversity of flora and fauna of the Sundarbans is well-recognized, it is surprising to know that the microbial biodiversity of the world’s largest tidal mangrove forest and the industrial biotechnological po-tential of this immense biological resource are unheard of. On the premise that poorly researched habitats can offer better prospects for discovering new natural products, microbes from such habitats are currently being the focus of great international scientific interest. One such scantily explored habitat is the estuarine mangroves which form the margins of the terrestrial and marine ecosystems and are known to be highly pro-ductive and diverse ecosystems. It is believed that this ecosystem has the potential to become a new resource for bio- and chemodiversity, given salinity to be the prime determinant of bacterial diversity. Recent research efforts at Kolkata based institutions show that microbes of the Sundarbans can be harnessed for commercial utilization. Joint research programmes by Jadavpur University, Indian Institute of Chemical Biology and Peer-less Hospital have led to the discovery of a new bacterium, Streptomyces sundarbansensis, the first validly de-scribed marine bacterium from India as well as novel enzymes and antimicrobials of commercial importance from the microbial diversity of the Sundarbans [3-11]. Researchers from the University of Calcutta have re-ceived funding of Rs. 5.6 crore from the World Bank to catalog the unknown microbial diversity of the Sundarbans. The Department of Biotechnology, Government of India is submitting a proposal of Rs. 25 crores to the Planning Commission to search for novel microbes producing new pharmaceuticals along the entire Indian coast including the Sundarbans. A report on the status of biotechnology industry in India published in ‘Biospectrum.’ on 18th October, 2006 highlighted the potential of obtaining commercially valuable biochemi-cal and genetic resources in the Sundarbans [12].

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The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from-their Utilization to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an international agreement which aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources in a fair and equitable way, including by appro-priate access to genetic resources and by appropriate transfer of relevant technologies, taking into account all rights over those resources and to technologies, and by appropriate funding, thereby contributing to the con-servation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components. It was adopted by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity at its tenth meeting on 29th October 2010 in Nagoya, Japan [13]. In India, as well as in the world, a well-known astoundingly successful example of access to genetic resources and benefit sharing is the Kani-TBGRI (Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Trivan-drum) model in Kerala. In 1987, a team of scientists from the TBGRI undertook an ethno-botanical study in the Western Ghats of Kerala. During this expedition, the scientists observed that the accompanying Kani tri-balmen frequently ate some fruits of a plant that kept them energetic during the long periods of walking through the forests. Although the Kani men were initially reluctant to reveal the secret, they did so once con-vinced by the scientists that their traditional knowledge would not be misused and that, they would conduct scientific investigations on the plant. If any commercial drugs/products could be eventually developed, the profits would be shared with the tribals. The Kani tribe then disclosed the ‘magical’ plant, which was later identified as Trichophus zeylanicus. Pharmacological investigations of the fruit confirmed its anti-fatigue prop-erties. Detailed chemical and pharmacological investigations showed that the leaves contained various glycol-ipids and some other nonsteroidal compounds possessing anti-stress and anti-hepatoxic properties. The sci-entists developed a polyherbal formulation that was named ‘Jeevni’. After satisfactory clinical evaluation this herbal drug was released for commercial production. The manufacturing license of ‘Jeevni’ was transferred to the Aryavaidya Pharmacy Coimbatore Ltd. for a licence fee of Rs. 10 lakhs for a period of seven years. Keeping the promise made to the tribals, TBGRI in consultation with the community worked out an arrangement for benefit sharing. According to this agreement, the TBGRI has consented to share 50% of the license fee and royalty with the tribal community [14]. Can this spectacular partnership model be exemplified with the mi-crobes of the Sundarbans? After a recent field survey conducted by the Institute of Forest Productivity, Ranchi, the scientists reported that 17 species of the medicinal plants and trees are being felled in the Sundarbans [15]. While conservation of vegetation and natural regeneration of the plants should be undertaken, the exploitation of the untapped mi-crobial resources should also be immediately initiated. The study of microbial diversity is important to ad-vance biotechnology. New technologies, particularly in habitat sampling and characterization, nucleic acid analysis, computer science, analytical chemistry, molecular biology and biochemical engineering place the realm of microbial diversity on the cutting edge of science. Governmental policies and private entrepreneur-ship should promote serious microbial bioprospecting efforts in the Sundarbans in accordance with the tenets of the CBD, ensuring fair and equitable sharing of profits with the local people. The microbial resources are renewable; therefore there would be no requirement of expensive aquacultural equipment or agricultural cul-tivation in the ecologically sensitive area. Industrial production with modern process-controlled reactors would allow intensive production in factories far way from the Sundarbans. This would, in turn, promote in-dustrial development and provide employment opportunities. Finally, commercial successes would bring huge revenues that can be distributed among the local people of the Sundarbans, thus relieving them of the current ecosystem-damaging livelihoods like fishing and agriculture. References [1] Introduction- Indian Coast Guards www.indiancoastguard.nic.in/Indiancoastguard/.../sundarbans.pdf [2] Industrial microbiology-A new challenge: Mir Jaume: International Microbiology: 7, 81.82, 2004

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[3] Streptomyces sundarbansensis sp. nov., a novel actinomycete that produces 2-allyloxyphenol: Meyyappan Arumugam, Anindita Mitra, Arnab Pramanik, Malay Saha,Ratan Gachhui and Joydeep Mukherjee: Interna-tional Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, 61:2664-2669, 2011 [4] Studies on the production and purification of an antimicrobial compound and taxonomy of the producer isolated from the marine environment of the Sundarbans: Saha M, Ghosh D (Jr.), Ghosh D, Garai D, Jaisankar P, Sarkar K, Dutta P, Das S, Jha T and Mukherjee J: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 66, 497-505, 2005 [5] Purification and characterization of a salt, solvent, detergent and bleach tolerant protease from a new gamma-Proteobacterium isolated from the marine environment of the Sundarbans: Barindra Sana, De-bashish Ghosh, Malay Saha and Joydeep Mukherjee :Process Biochemistry 41, 208-215, 2006 [6] Production and purification of a bioactive substance inhibiting multiple drug resistant bacteria and hu-man leukemia cells from a salt-tolerant marine actinobacterium isolated from the Bay of Bengal: Malay Saha, Parasuraman Jaisankar, Satadal Das, Kalyan K. Sarkar, Soma Roy, Shila E. Besra, Joseph R. Vedasiro-mani, Debashish Ghosh, Barindra Sana, Joydeep Mukherjee : Biotechnology Letters, 28, 1083-1088, 2006 [7] Purification and characterization of an extracellular, uracil specific ribonuclease from a Bizionia species isolated from the marine environment of the Sundarbans: Barindra Sana, Debashish Ghosh, Malay Saha, Joy-deep Mukherjee: Microbiological Research,163, 31-38, 2008 [8] Purification and characterization of an extremely dimethylsulfoxide tolerant esterase from a salt-tolerant Bacillus species isolated from the marine environment of the Sundarbans: Barindra Sana, Debashish Ghosh, Malay Saha, Joydeep Mukherjee: Process Biochemistry, 42, 1571-1578, 2007 [9] Distribution of actinomycetes, their antagonistic behaviour and the physico-chemical characteristics of the world.s largest tidal mangrove forest: Mitra A, Santra SC and Mukherjee J: Applied Microbiology and Bio-technology, 80, 685-695, 2008 [10] Isolation of an unusual metabolite, 2-allyloxyphenol from a marine actinobacterium, its biological ac-tivities and applications: Meyyappan Arumugam, Anindita Mitra, Parasuraman Jaisankar, Shreya Dasgupta, Tuhinadri Sen, Ratan Gachhui, Ujjal Kumar Mukhopadhyay and Joydeep Mukherjee: Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 86(9), 109-117, 2010 [11] Isolation and characterization of cyanobacteria possessing antimicrobial activity from the Sundarbans, the world.s largest tidal mangrove forest: Pramanik A, Sundararaman M, Das S, Ghosh U and Mukherjee J: Journal of Phycology, 47, 731-743,2011 [12] Marine biotech sector needs a shot in the arm: Kulkarni N: http://biospectrumindia.ciol.com/content/biobusiness/10610183.asp [13] The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (http://www.cbd.int/abs/) [14] India’s presentation for the Ministerial Meeting of Megabiodiversity Countries, Cancun, Mexico, Febru-ary 16-18, 2002 [15] The Telegraph, Kolkata, 19th June, 2012

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Ganges River Dolphin in India Dr. Sangeeta Mitra, WWF-India, Kolkata

Platanista gangetica gangetica at the mouth of River Distribution map of Dolphins in West Bengal Rupnarayan Common Name : Susuk; Ganges river dolphin Scientific name : Platanista gangetica gangetica (Roxburgh, 1801) Geographical range : Ganga, Brahmaputra, Meghna, Koshi River systems of India, Bangladesh and Nepal respectively. Status: The total population is estimated to be around 1700 individuals in its entire distribution range within Indian Terri-tory. This species has been included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), in Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and categorized as Endangered in 1996 on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List. The first efforts in the 20th century to document the status and threats faced by the Ganges River dolphin were made under the Ganga Action Plans (GAP) I (1985) and II(1991) through research and conservation projects. Habitat : It prefers to stay in deep water in and around the confluence of two or more rivers. Morphology: Greyish brown or slaty coloured, smooth and hairless skin in adults. Calves are chocolate or dark brown at birth. Females are larger than males. Length : 2.7m or 9 ft ( in female), 2.12m or 7ft ( in male) Body weight : Around 150kg (average) Food & Feeding : Ganges River dolphins feed on several species of fishes, invertebrates and possibly turtles and birds. Life cycle & Reproduction: Females give birth to only one calf every 2/3 years after a gestation period of 9-11 months. Average life span is 25-28 years. Though the breeding season of the Gangetic dolphin extends from January to June, newly born calves can be seen even in other months. While mating usually takes place between March and June, it has been observed even in July.

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Significance: The Ganges dolphin is an indicator species for the river ecosystem and is at the apex of the food chain. It is an en-demic and rare aquatic mammal found only in the Indian subcontinent and is part of our natural aquatic heritage. The species has been declared the ‘National Aquatic Animal’ by the Government of India(2010) . Speciality: Dolphins cannot see but emit an ultrasonic sound, that hits an object or any prey inside water. This is called echo-location. Threats: India lost 65% of its river dolphins in the last 25 years because of drying up rivers, low flow, pollution, over fishing, developmental activities and water structures, entanglement in fishing nets or injury by river traffic and hunting of dolphins for oil and other body parts.

The authors are solely responsible for the opinions/comments/remarks for their respective articles.

West Bengal Biodiversity Board (Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal)

‘Paribesh Bhawan’ (3rd Floor) 10A, Block LA, Sector –III, Salt Lake City, Kolkata - 700098

Telephone: (033) 2335 2707; (033) 2335 2731 (Fax) E mail: biodiversity.wbbb@nic.in

Compiled by: Tuli Bandopadhayay Edited by: The Chairman, WBBB

Biodiversity News

A legal proceeding has been initiated in the learned Court of Barasat Sub-division on illegal commercial trading of golden Gekko (Gekko gecko L.,1758) under the Biological diversity Act, 2002, which is be-ing looked after by the Forest Range offi-cer, Wild Animal Rescue & Transit Facility Centre, Salt Lake, authorized by the Mem-ber secretary of the W.B. Biodiversity Board, as per the notification no. S.O. 708 (E), dated 17th November, 2008, read with Notification no. S.O. 120 (E), dated 7th January, 2009.