First NCUBC held in Indore

The Nature Volunteers and World Researchers’ Association organised first National Conference on Urban Biodiversity Conservation during August 5-6, at Hotel Radisson Blue (Indore) and Kesar Parvat (Mhow)

Humans have spent hundreds of years documenting life on Earth, and now, having catalogued a whopping 1.6 million species, an estimated 7-8 million species are yet to be discovered. As the human impact on the planet intensifies, it is feared that many species could be lost before we even discover them. So, why is it so important that we protect this biodiversity? For it is what ensures our survival in the years to come with such grave natural disasters and calamities occurring so rapidly. Development is inevitable, but how can the human animal create ecosystems as balanced and efficient as the natural ones are? Here is where the concept of Urban Biodiversity comes. It refers to the variety of living organisms, including their genetic variations, as well as the multiplicity of habitats in and around dense human settlements.
According to the report of the United nation, titled, Global Assessment Report, over half a million species are on the brink of extinction due to the loss of habitat. Between the period of 1980 to 2000 over 100 million hectares of tropical rainforests have been cleared to meet the demand of growing population in the world. The urban areas on the other hand, have grown to twice the size as they were in the year 1992 when the Earth Summit was held Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
To bring it to the notice of the population, the 1st National Conference on Urban Biodiversity Conservation was organized by The Nature Volunteers (TNV) and World Researchers’ Association, with the aim of raising awareness about Urban Biodiversity Conservation. Held on 5th and 6th August, 2022 at venues Hotel Radisson Blu and Kesar Parvat Plantation respectively, the conference speakers and participants discussed several topics of importance concerning biodiversity conservation in urban areas.
Dr VB Mathur, Chairman – NBA. Dr Aniruddhe Mukherjee (IAS), Nikunj Shrivastava (IAS) and Dr Atul Shrivastava (IFS). Among the honoured guests were: Dr SL Garg, Dr Davish Jain, Dr PRao (SPA), Shri Ritesh Kumar, Dr S Banerjee, RP Singh (Chairman – TNV), Bhalu Mondhe (President – TNV) and Dr Hitesh Vaidya (Director – NIUA) were among the dignitaries present.

CLIMATE BIODIVERSITY IN URBAN AREAS

The inaugural session began with lighting of lamp and welcome speech by Abhilash Khandekar, President – TNV and Director – NCUBC-2022. The insightful session stressed on the insignificance of sapiens as a species and the right to existence of all organisms alike.
Prof PSN Rao, Director – SPA: CBD 1992 in Rio, Urban wetlands’ conservation shared, that Sirpur lake is now a part of the Ramsar List; it goes unnoticed and is likely headed towards desertification if quick action isn’t taken. He mentioned the 58000 organism species out of which, 17000 free species are threatened. Politicians never seem to look into biodiversity conservation despite having good intentions. Our honorable Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan plants a tree every day. Municipal governments need to be deeply concerned and committed to the conservation of urban biodiversity, like lakes in Bangalore and Chennai, gardens in Pune. Also, professionals in the construction industry should be sympathetic toward the peril of our natural treasures.
Dr SL Garg spoke of his efforts for creating a city forest in the Kesar Parvat that has 30000 trees. Urban Biodiversity comprises variety and variability. Dr Subhashish Banerjee, partner of ITPI Geddes 1918 plan, Indore, City Resilience Strategy mentioned that, “In a compact urban sprawl, problematic sewage systems damage biodiversity. Under Van Vihar 1983 its agenda was conserving land. Also, flora and grass cover were curated.” Kolkata wetlands: “time is equivalent to money”. These are sure to have financial implications and need budgetary provisions. Yet development must happen in harmony with nature.
The tree census, for example, is a plan where the use of wastelands for transplant is done first and then plans about the buildings are thought of. Budget 2022 forms a dedicated committee along with one for the capacity building of urban planners. They work closely with the states and take into account local experiences.
Dr Aniruddhe Mukherjee, the chairman of the pollution control board spoke about factors that promote wise use of urban wetlands. 15000 wetlands of the state have digital documentation. Also, Ankur is a state plantation program that has combined plantation strategies with sustainability and undergoes regular monitoring. In MP, the city green index has 16 municipalities simply advocating that the more the city forest area, the more will be the parks and green spaces under local body’s jurisdiction.
Dr VB Mathur, chairperson of NBA, suggested to promote ecological economies and local varieties of cattle that are largely affected by climatic change. He also suggested ecosystem services and believes every city needs documentation to manage its indigenous biodiversity. National parks and Sanctuaries are complex initiatives that raise awareness. Landscaping is an urban entity and rearranges in the priority order. This session was concluded with Vote of Thanks by Dev Kumar Vasudevan, Secretary – TNV, Indore.

SESSION I
COEXISTING WITH NATURE FOR SUSTAINABLE CITIES

The session was chaired by Hitesh Vaidya, Director, NIUA, New Delhi with panelists Victor Rana Shinde, Dr Subhashish Banerjee and Dr Manita Saxena. The introductory speaker of this session was U Rajsekar, NIUA, New Delhi who elaborated aspects of climate change, assessment framework of Smart cities and the impact lack of biodiversity management has. The 10-point agenda of URMP Framework had insightful details and the panelists’ questions were invigorating such as the question ‘have we succumbed to poor disaster management?’

SESSION II
ECOLOGY IN METROPOLITAN REGIONS- TOOLS, PROCESSES AND POLICY INTERVENTIONS

The session was chaired by Dr Atul Shrivastava, IFS. Other panelist were Ankit Asthana, CEO Smart City Bhopal and M Ashraf, Chairperson, Town Planning Committee, Kochi.
The introductory speaker of this session was Dr Monalisa Sen, ICLEI, New Delhi, who started with a brief presentation on Local Government for sustainability and how we promote urban sustainability. Her informative insights on City Biodiversity Index (CBI) are tools to help cities evaluate / monitor their Biodiversity Conservation Efforts. The case study of Kochi, as the first city in Kerala with CBI elaborating on the focus areas, their interaction and integrated action on biodiversity which was an eyeopener.
The next speaker was M Ashraf, Chairperson, Town Planning Committee, Kochi. He presented Stagewise Development of Project.
His elaboration of all the four stages: Baseline Assessment, City Biodiversity Index & Biodiversity Communication followed by Local Biodiversity Strategy And Action Plan (LBSAP), and finally Pilot Project Implementation was informative and engaging.

SESSION III
URBAN WETLANDS; CHALLENGES IN CONSERVATION

This session was chaired by Aniruddhe Mukherjee (IAS). The Co – Chair were Chitranjan Tyagi and Sandeep Khanwalkar.The first speaker of this session Kaustubh Rishi, TNV Indore, spoke on Urban wetlands and challenges in conservation. The differentiation between wetlands and wastelands and their statistics and importance, the conservation and challenges for the same were discussed in detail, along with the inclusion of Sirpur Lake in the Ramsar List and TNVs Volunteer efforts for the conservation for the same.

SESSION IV
ROLE OF LOCAL BODIES IN URBAN BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

This session was chaired by Dr PSN Rao, Director SPA, New Delhi. The first speaker Dr Bakul Lad, MPSBB Bhopal presented Role of Local Bodies in Urban Biodiversity Conservation and his views on the same. He started discussing issues with urban biodiversity conservation. Starting with losses of habitat area highlighting that fragmented habitat causes local extinction of certain species and the issues of urbanization wit
population pressure.
He emphasized on the concept of developing sustainable cities which includes conserving nature, restoring biodiversity, maintaining and enhancing ecosystem services, and governance.

SESSION V
PROMOTING BIODIVERSITY IN URBAN LANDSCAPES

This session was chaired by Dr VB Mathur, Chairman NBA with HS Mohanta, IFS, Neha Raghav, Dr Ambika Sharma as panelists.
The first speaker Dr Areendran, WWF, India spoke about Preserving ecosystems, footprint domain and science-based organisation. The information he shared about Drone Mapping, Zoning of Wetlands to work on Rejuvenation and the vision of end desired result were very insightful to say the least.

OPENING SESSION; 6TH AUGUST, 2022 KESAR PARVAT

The Opening Session was addressed by Dr SL Garg, an environmentalist, senior academician, researcher and the Founder Director of non-profit organization – World Researchers Association. In 2007 he purchased a barren land of 25 acres near Mhow, District Indore.
With the pledge of planting 50,000 trees from 2015, Dr SL Garg has planted 32,000 trees on the spread of 25 acres of barren rocky hill by 2021. Because of so many plants and trees, Keshar Parvat is now a unique example of biodiversity where various species of flora and fauna reside.

SESSION I
CONSERVING URBAN TRADITIONAL WATER SOURCES – Means To Protect Climate And Biodiversity

The chairperson of this session was Dr Lokendra Thakkar, senior scientific officer of EPCO. With fellow panelists Dr Ishwar Narayanan, UNEP and Ambrish Kela. For this session, Lieutenant-General PN Anant Narayanan was invited as the chief guest. The discussion was introduced by a brief presentation on “Enhancing Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change through Conservation of Traditional Water Supply Sources (Wells & Bawdies) of Indore city”. Conservation of traditional water sources has been identified as one of the best Climate Change Adaption strategies highlighted in NAPCC, NWM, National Water Policy and MP SAPCC. Renovation of traditional water sources is one of the five targeted Water Conservation Interventions under Jal Shakti Abhiyan. The process flow includes consultation, meetings, data collections, site visits. The project has built in elements of replicability. Rejuvenation of all the 629 TWSS of Indore city is being done. Conservation of Wells and Bawdies is the major activity. Detailed hydro-geological assessment of these TWSS to assess their yield potential and response to recharge is being undertaken. Online dashboard is being developed and updated regularly.
The project is an adaptation project with the mitigation co-benefits. The estimation of GHG emission reduction is not a part of the project although the project contributes in reduction of GHG emission on account of water pumping. Direct benefit to around 16500 households and Indore Municipal Corporation may save revenue of `5.66 crores through reduced water pumping costs and also leading to reduction in GHG emissions.

SESSION II
URBAN FOREST EXPERIMENT

The panelists of this session were Padmashri, Bhalu Mondhe, Dr VB Mathur, Director of Wildlife Institute of India, Bhupesh Sharma, R Gupta, IAS-CEO Smart city, Abhilash Khandekar, President of Nature Volunteers and head of World Research Organization.
The introductory speaker was Vishal Pawar from Anandvan Foundation, Pune. The discussion was introduced by brief presentation on Anandvan Foundation, which is an urban forest. The founder of Anandvan is Praveen Kumar Anand. He turned a dumping ground on a barren hill into an urban forest. He truly believes that India’s environment, biodiversity, forests and wildlife are our greatest assets and we ought to preserve the same for all future generations. Seven years ago the Anandvan area was fully covered with garbage, debris, and tons of plastic. All citizens, students, youngsters started taking part in extensive cleaning drive organized by Anandvan foundation. They started breaking rocks and softening ground. They started building water tanks and artificial ponds. They started removing encroachments and started building walls, gates, benches and gazebos. After three years, a massive tree plantation drive started and volunteers played a major role. They had started using cocopeat with soil which helps in water retention. They set up proper water management system because of acute water shortage. They implemented a drip irrigation system on 2000 sq ft by planting 550 saplings. Rain water harvesting was also adopted. Among other steps, water stream and other water bodies were set up for birds. 33 acres of barren land were converted into urban forest and now work is going on over 200 acre land.
Today Anandvan is an ideal example of urban green forest created amidst concrete jungle pumping oxygen in this carbon chamber. Various species of indigenous tress like Banyan, Pipal, Neem, Moha, Ber, Bakul, Katesavar, Tamarind, Fig, Taaman, Palas, Shami, Shirish, Sita Ashok, Ramphal, Harad, Behada, Guggul, Bahava, Amla, Bael, Medshingi and Sonsavar have been planted.

FUTURE PLAN

A green corridor to connect the adjoining forest patches.
Dev Kumar Vasudevan proposed the vote of thanks.