Union Minister Bhupender Yadav on Sunday said biodiversity offers goods and services that provide a natural habitat and are essential for a well-functioning global economy.
Approximately 40 per cent of the world's economy is based on biological products and any effort at conserving biodiversity would be able to succeed only by tackling the challenges that arise due to global warming, the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change said at an event here.
"Global warming has to be urgently brought under control," he said, after inaugurating an exhibition on the occasion of International Day for Biological Diversity. He noted that the country was on track to achieve its biodiversity targets at the national level and was also contributing significantly towards achieving the goals at the global level.
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India has established a unique three-tier model of biodiversity resource governance at national, state and local body levels ensuring the entire country gets the representation in the governance system, he said.
The Minister added that the convergence of people, culture and rich tradition of Tamil Nadu has preserved its unique biodiversity in the region. Yadav said the National Biodiversity Authority and Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Board were working with the Irula Snake Catchers Industrial Cooperative Society to provide access to snake venom to iSERA Biological Private Ltd which has signed an "Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS)" agreement.
As per the tie-up, five per cent of the total purchase price of snake venom on an annual basis would be deposited into the account of the cooperative society for the benefit of the community, he said. Such partnerships are needed to strengthen and incentivise conservation, he added.
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Later, the Union Minister took part in the foundation stone ceremony for construction of an Employees' State Insurance Scheme (ESI) Hospital in neighbouring Sriperumbudur district which is aimed at serving residents of nearby localities. The hospital would be built at an outlay of Rs 155 crore and would have a host of facilities including general medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, emergency, critical care among others.
Yadav said the Central government has rolled out several welfare schemes aimed at benefitting the people, including the supply of e-Shram cards to 75 lakh workers employed in the unorganised sectors in the last eight months in Tamil Nadu. Nearly 13.24 crore labourers along with their families were receiving the medicinal benefits under the ESI scheme, he said. In Tamil Nadu, the ESI scheme was meeting the needs of 38.26 lakh insured persons and about 1.48 crore beneficiaries, he said.
The minister said out of the total 38 districts in Tamil Nadu, the ESI scheme was fully implemented in 20 districts and partially in 16 districts.
-With PTI Input
