Local bodies and their representatives have a crucial and paramount role to play in the protection of biodiversity and in the conservation of fauna and flora, according to National Biodiversity Authority chairman S Kannaiyan. There were 15,000 different types of medicinal plants in the country, and 429 varieties were facing threat of extinction, he said. Medicinal plants, available abundantly in the rural areas, needed to be conserved and the local bodies should document them, he said. He said he had sought a grant of Rs 10 crore from the Planning Commission to enable the Bio-Diversity Management committees at the panchayat level to go ahead with the work of conservation of biodiversity at the grassroot level. He was inaugurating a two-day workshop organised by Pondicherry Institute of Development Research and Action in association with the National Biodiversity authority here. Establishment of Bio-diversity Boards at the State and Union Territory level would prevent what is called