World Habitat Day: Pushpa Gujral Science City holds webinar for students

Jalandhar, October 3

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The Pushpa Gujral Science City celebrated the World Wildlife Week by organising a webinar on the World Habitat Day with the theme “Status of Faunal Diversity and their conservation in India”. Around 100 students from different educational institutions in Punjab attended the programme.

The director general, Science City, Dr Neelima Jerath said, “The World Wildlife Week is celebrated from October 2 to October 8 annually. India is among the 17 mega diverse countries of the world, but many plants and animals are facing threat to their existence in the country. According to the UN’s Convention on Biodiversity, one in every four species of the world is nearing extinction and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed that about 25 per cent of mammals, including 14 per cent birds, 40 per cent amphibians and 34 per cent, are in its Red List. She pointed out that the reintroduction of the Cheetah in India and Gharials in Punjab are the efforts in the right direction.

Dr Gaurav Sharma, Scientist-E, Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Dehradun was the key speaker at this occasion. He said, “India covers 2.4 per cent of the world’s land and 6.1 per cent of that land accounts for its faunal habitat. Further, around 1,03,258 species of the fauna belong to 26 phylums of kingdom of Protozoa and Animalia, including 66,363 insects species of total 16,79,523 species in the world.

Rajesh Grover, Director, Science City, said biodiversity is fundamental to life on earth. He urged the participants to inspire masses for conservation and sustainable management of the fauna.