special cover released after Delhi makes house sparrow its ‘state bird’.

JAIPUR: As thousands of delegates gather in India for the 11th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, from 8 - 19 October 2012, a new initiative will be unveiled to help countries meet some of their obligations under the legally-binding treaty whilst also reducing poverty.

It will show how the two seemingly disparate worlds of poverty eradication and biodiversity conservation are linked, and its launch comes ahead of the UN's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October.

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has advocated for a scientific approach in conserving the biodiversity of the State.

Tuki, was addressing a high-level team from the department of environment and forest headed by Arunachal Pradesh State Medicinal Plant Board chairman Bamang Felix here yesterday, official sources said today. The team was slated to participate in a 10-day Conference of Parties (CoP) to be held at Hyderabad beginning October 8 next.

The city is two-thirds of a point away from reaching the pinnacle of biodiversity conservation. On a scale of 92, the level of biodiversity management in Greater Hyderabad is 30.

National Biodiversity Authority chairman Dr Balakrishna Pisupati said the abundant biodiversity of India exists to be shared with public and private scientific research organisations, both inland and abroad.

Speaking on the sidelines of the MoP-6, Dr Pisupati said, “While we agree that there has been unregulated use of our plants by multinationals that saw biopiracy cases filed against them, it will be foolish to restrict ethical access to the rich biodiversity of India by closing our doors to research. We have to keep aside the storms of sensational debate and look into the science of it.”

Guwahati, Oct.

Genetic engineering has been hailed as a panacea for the problem of global hunger and population explosion, but research studies reveal that it has failed to deliver the goods. At the same time, it has created more problems than it could solve. The Union of Concerned Scientists, an international research group based in the US, said none of the genetically engineered crops under cultivation so far has boosted farm yield or overcome the problem of drought conditions.

“Genetic engineering has actually done very little to increase the yield of food and feed crops. It appears unlikely that this technology will play a leading role in helping the world feed itself in the foreseeable future,” said the Union of Concerned Scientists. In a document — Failure to Yield — released at the CoP-11, the research group reviewed the data on soybeans and corn, the main GE food/feed crops in the USA.