The Centre in association with all the States, Local Self Government Departments and State Pollution Boards have already initiated activities to eliminate the single use plastic items and sensitise all the stakeholders involved in it to switch over to alternatives so as to completely phase out plastic from this country. Besides, campaigns, mainly social media campaigns have started to sensitise people about the ill-effects of the single-use plastics which have low utility and high littering potential as well as the Centre’s efforts to stop use of plastics officially all across the country. In fact, the ban starts from today. The Union Minister for Environment & Forest and Climate Change and Labour & Employment Shri Bhupender Yadav stated this today after inaugurating the 107th Foundation Day of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI). He added, the Ministry has already institutionalised a Task Force for this and the Secretary of the Ministry is in constant touch with the State authorities to implement the Centre’s notification of the Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, on August 12, 2021. The Union Government has received a wide response from the public at large in this initiative stated the Minister.
Shri Yadav revealed that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the Ministry has come up with an app, called Green App-‘Single Use Plastic’ to receive complaints regarding banned items and also those which will be banned from today and all SPCBs have taken action regarding this.
According to the Minister, those involved in the manufacture of single use plastic are going for alternative and capacity building workshops are being organized for MSME units to provide them technical assistance for manufacturing of alternatives to banned single use plastic items with the involvement of CPCB/SPCBs/PCCs along with Ministry of Small Micro and Medium Enterprises and Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering (CIPET) and their State centres. The Government of India has also taken steps to promote innovation and provide an ecosystem for accelerated penetration and availability of alternatives all across the country, he said.
Lauding the role of ZSI for keeping a constant vigil on the animals of this subcontinent, Shri Yadav harped on increasing the taxonomical capacities and urged for complete digitisation of the documentation and the preservation of the researched upon species of both flora and fauna.
The Union Minister of State for Environment & Forest and Climate Change Shri Ashwini Choubey appreciated the initiatives of ZSI in documentation and preservation of the large repertoire of the fauna available in India and harped on more concerted efforts by scientists to transform the organisation into a true knowledge hub in the near future following the concept-‘Jai Jawan, Jai Vigyan & Jai Anusandhan’.
Today, both the ministers released a couple of books and presented the Prestigious E K Janaki Ammal National Awards to three distinguished Taxonomists of the country. The books released included ‘Animal Discoveries New Species Records’, ‘Plant Discoveries 2021’, ‘Faunal Diversity of Bio-geographic Zones of India’, ‘Birds of India’, ‘Faunal Diversity of Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh’, ‘Faunal Diversity of Satkosia and Baisipalli Wildlife Sanctuaries, Satkosia Tiger Reserve’, ‘Algal Flora of Jharkhand’, ‘The Wild Orchids of Goa’ and the ‘Flora of India’-Vol IX-Saxifragaceae-Lecythidaceae’.
The eminent Taxonomists who were honoured with the prestigious E K Janaki Ammal National Award included Dr. Ch. Sasikala, an eminent Bacteriologist for her contribution in Microbiology, Prof. Mamiyil Sabu, former Head of the Department of Botany, University of Calicut and Dr. Kailash Chandra, an eminent Entomologist and former Director, ZSI, who is also popularly known as the ‘Beetle Man of India’.
The other dignitaries present on the occasion included Smt. Manju Pandey, Joint Secretary, Union Ministry of Environment & Forest and Climate Change, Dr. Dhriti Banerjee, Director, ZSI and Dr. Ashiho Asosii Mao, Director, Botanical Survey of India (BSI).
Source: 1 JUL 2022 by PIB Kolkata
Photo: Internet
