HYDERABAD, Telangana: The city of Hyderabad has shown significant improvement in the biodiversity sector in the past nine years. This success of Hyderabad city in the biodiversity sector is being reflected in the latest edition of the City Biodiversity Index 2022.
City Biodiversity Index has been released by K T Rama Rao, Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD), Government of Telangana, on Tuesday, April 18. The index can play an instrumental role in tracking and monitoring the progress of biodiversity conservation initiatives. City Biodiversity Index is the only index in the world specifically designed for monitoring and evaluating the biodiversity status in cities. The Biodiversity Index is also known as Singapore Index.
In Hyderabad, the index was first introduced in 2012. Kolkata created this index in 2017. Hyderabad is the first city to create the index for the second time.
It consists of 23 different biodiversity indicators, including the ongoing biodiversity efforts in the city, local government’s support and initiatives introduced to improve the biodiversity in the cities. A total of 92 marks are allocated in this index against 23 indicators, and Hyderabad has managed to score 57 marks in latest edition of the City Biodiversity Index, while in 2012, Hyderabad scored only 36 marks. The index has been prepared by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Credit of this improvement made by Hyderabad is being attributed to some of the programmes introduced by the Government of Telangana, including Haritha Haram, rejuvenation of water bodies, urban parks and forests to list a few.
The MA&UD minister highlighted that Haritha Haram aims to improve biodiversity status in all municipalities. A green budget has also been allocated to support various programmes such as Pattana Prakruthi Vanalu and Nurseries aimed at increasing the green cover. The minister added, “As a result of these extensive efforts, the green cover across the State has increased, leading to an improvement in biodiversity.”
Rao also talked about the Haritha awards and said that other towns, along with Hyderabad, have also received awards for improving their respective green cover and biodiversity initiatives, which are being implemented across the state. He also talked about continuing these efforts and instructed the department officials to formulate a five-year action plan to improve biodiversity. He announced that Haritha awards would be given to the municipality and municipal officials that perform well and increase green cover.