PushpaGujral Science City celebrated Van Mahotsav by organizing a webinar on Role ofMicrobes in Sustainable Forest Management. Around 300 school & collegestudents from all over Punjab participated through virtual mode.
Theprogamme was sponsored by Department of Forests & Wildlife Preservation,Punjab. Dr. Vipin Parkash, Programme Coordinator (Forestry), Forest ResearchInstitute, Dehradun was the key speaker. Delivering a talk at this occasion hesaid that soil microorganisms are important part of forest ecosystem and playan important role in sustainable development of forestry.
Further,Microbial life has been present on earth for at least 3,500 million years andmicrobes also play numerous roles as silent partners in human activities suchas forestry, agriculture, mining and water treatment. A balanced community ofmicroorganisms is extremely important for trees health and plays a vital rolein converting barren, poor quality land into cultivable land, he added.
Dr.Neelima Jerath, Director General, Science City giving introductory remarks atthe occasion said that primary objective of Van Mahotsav week celebration is tobring awareness on the environmental issues and educate masses about the needof planting trees as these are one the best solution to control global warming.Whereas for maintaining the ecological balance in a country a minimum of 33% ofland area is required under forests, in India the actual forest area isapproximately 21.67 % only.
However,with a Total Forest cover of 7,12,249 sq km, India is one of the ten most forestrich countries of the world and is one of the mega diverse countries and thereis dire need to save flora and fauna to prevent forest degradation, she added.The major issue of concern is that the forest cover is not evenly distributed,for example, Punjab has a total forest area of 3.65% only out of which about 1%is very dense forest, 44% is moderately dense and 55% is open forest. Thiswarrants a need to enhance the area under forests in the state, she added.
Dr.Rajesh Grover, Director, Science City present at the occasion said that ScienceCity is playing an important role in harboring rich floral biodiversity andmaintaining cactus garden, herbal garden and avenue of rare endangered species.It has 5500 trees having rich cultural and heritage value at its premises. Heemphasized the need to increase plantation activity in Punjab to increaseforest cover to 15 % at least. Science City also organized two onlinecompetitions on “Plant Native Tree Species” and “Heritage Trees Contest” at theoccasion to celebrate Van Mahotsav week. The results of the competitions willbe declared on July 11,2021.