No members on TN biodiversity board.

Deccan Chronicle:Saturday, January 28, 2012.

In what might appear as a rude shock to environmentalists across the state, the Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Board, which is the state body entrusted with the task of biodiversity management, does not have any member at present.

This information was revealed in response to an RTI petition filed by activists belonging to the Coimbatore wing of the Tamil Nadu Green Movement (TNGM) recently.

In its response to the RTI petition, the state forest department has claimed, “The tenure of the members of the Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Board has expired on April 29, 2011 and proposals have been sent to the government for reconstitution of the board. But, at present there are no members on the board.”

Members of the TNGM who have been shocked at the response of the government said that while the authorities claimed on one side that they were initiating various projects to enhance the rich biodiversity in the state, the Biological Diversity Act 2002 was totally ignored by the state.

“When compared with Kerala, TN is way behind in protecting the biodiversity spots here. While there is a fully functional biodiversity board and at least 1,000 Biodiversity Management Committees in Kerala, there is not even a member present on the board in our state,” said Mr Mohan Raj, co-ordinator of the Coimbatore wing of TNGM.

“The RTI response has also revealed that the state government had surrendered a sizable amount of the funds allocated to the board to carry out its activities as there was nothing happening here on that front,” TNGM members said.