Kolkata: The Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) has been selected by UNESCO as one of the top 30 biosphere reserves across the world, under the latter's Man And Biosphere programme.
It happens to be the only one among the 12 biosphere reserves in the country, to figure in this list of biosphere reserves.
"UNESCO's Man and Biosphere programme and its World Network of Biosphere Reserve (WNBR), organised the campaign #ProudToShare and selected 30 videos, released at a special event during the multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism in New York, on the occasion of World Environment Day, June 5, 2018. We are delighted with SBR being selected among the top biosphere reserves across the globe," R P Saini, director of SBR said.
The video prepared by the state Forest department will now be made viral through social networking sites and YouTube by tagging the UNESCO logo with it. The video depicts how positive actions in biosphere reserves are contributing to the economic development.
"People will share their reactions after beholding this video and on the basis of it, UNESCO will rank these 30 biosphere reserves across the globe," a senior official of the state Forest department said.
A seminar will be held some time in the middle of this year at New York, on the topic "Good practices in Biosphere," in which the ranking is expected to be awarded.
SBR, like the other biosphere reserves across the globe located in countries like Brazil, Russia, Peru, Argentina, Finland, Germany etc. witness huge footfall of both domestic and international tourists, all around the year.
"The honour will surely give a big boost to the tourism potential of Sunderbans," an official in the state Tourism department said.
According to Saini, the state Forest department's initiatives like formation of joint forest management comm-
ittee with forest officials
and common people have contributed noticeably in tiger conservation, mangrove conservation and economic development of villagers, in the only mangrove tiger habitat of the world.
"We have highlighted that nylon fencing has been put up on a 96 km area along the forest-village interfaces and quick response teams have been stationed at strategic locations, which has resulted in tiger straying coming down to almost zero," Saini added.
The state Forest department, for the last few years, has undertaken mass awareness programmes in the villages of Sunderbans, which has contributed in the mangrove emerging as one of the major biosphere reserves in the world, in which man and animal live amicably and conflicts in recent times have been a rarity.