DFO Nowshera convenes meeting of Biodiversity Management Committee of MC Sunderbani

RAJOURI, FEBRUARY 2: A meeting of the Biodiversity management Committee of the Municipal Committee Sunderbani was held today.

 The meeting was chaired by Divisional Forest officer Nowshera, Neelima Shah here in the Forest Range office.

The meeting was attended by Chairman Municipal Committee Sunderbani, Rajinder Sharma; Addl Deputy Commissioner Sunderbani, Vinod Behnal; CDPO Sunderbani, Daleep Kumar; Range Officer Sunderbani, Rakesh Verma, besides  MC members and sectoral officers of other line departments.

 Rakesh Verma, Technical Officer J&K Biodiversity Council (Range Forest Officer Sunderbani), welcomed the participants and gave a brief overview of the Biodiversity Management Committee, its functions, responsibilities. He informed the house that the main function of BMC was to prepare a register of all the biological resources of BMC in a pre-designed register which is known as People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR). He also informed the participants that PBRs have already been prepared for all the local bodies, now we have to update the information registered in the PBRs. A set of PBR contains 31 formats, each format contains specific information about the biodiversity. Once the PBR is updated, it will aid in tracing how habitats are changing, and to understand and estimate parts of our forests.

The Divisional Forest Officer Nowshera informed that PBR is an important document containing the information about the biodiversity of a BMC. “It should be carefully updated, all the information regarding flora and fauna should be properly documented,” she said and threw light on the importance and role of BMC in forest management as well as local resource management. She said that a detailed map and bird eye view photo of local body should also be added in PBR. 

 The BMC meeting was organized by Block Forest Officer, Sunderbani Rangeel Singh and Block Forest Officer Devak Ved Parkash, Block Forest Officer Dharamsal Rajinder Dev, Block Forest Officer Kangri Didar Singh along with other Forest officials of Sunderbani range.

Rajinder Sharma, Chairman MC Sunderbani presented the vote of thanks and assured Divisional Forest Officer Nowshera that MC Sunderbani is always ready to help the Forest department in all matters.

The meeting of BMC was conducted under the direct supervision of Dr. Mohit Gera (Chairman J&K Bio Diversity council) PCCF (HOFF), Asaf Mehmood Sagar (Member Secretary J&K Bio Diversity council) APCCF Director J&K FRI, Vivek Verma Conservator of Forest, West Circle Rajouri.