Dr Manas Bhuniya, state environment minister, has urged teachers, students and nature lovers to work together to stop the rampant onslaught on nature and find out ways and means to preserve the diverse biodiversity in Bengal.

He was addressing a gathering to celebrate World Biodiversity Day this morning. Dr Bhuniya said, “Bengal is a bio diverse state.

Except desert one can find everything here, from snow-clad mountains, dense forests, sea and rivers. Time has come that we should preserve our biodiversity,” he said, adding, “Steps will be taken to revive old varieties of paddy and small fishes that are facing extinction.”

The minister said the state environment department will provide every help and assistance to West Bengal Biodiversity Board in its attempt to preserve and protect biodiversity.

The board has taken several steps to preserve nature. In 2023, the people’s biodiversity register (PBR) was upgraded. There are 10 biodiversity heritage sites in West Bengal. Some of these sites are Kanakadurga temple and Chilkigarh forest in Jhargram, Baneshwar Shib Dighi in Cooch Behar, Tonglu MPCA in Darjeeling, Namthing Pokhari, Darjeeling, Haldir Char, East Midnapore and State Horticulture Research and Development among others. Eight biodiversity parks have come up in Bengal while construction of another 28 is on the anvil.

Locally-threatened plants have been preserved along with grassland, eco-pond among others. The state government has set up several seed banks in the city. They are situated at Hirbandh block in Bankura, kultali block in south 24-Parganas, Madarihat in Alipurduar, Basanti block in south 24-Parganas and Dantan block in West Midnapore among others.

The board has taken initiative to conserve and reintroduce the locally threatened varieties with the help of biodiversity management committee.

The board has been working towards establishment of rights of the farmers who have been conserving traditional varieties of rice as per the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers’ rights Act, 2001. Seventy three applications of traditional rice varieties are forwarded to the PPV&FR Authority for registration