The Hindu 23.05.2013
Mayor’s mantra: restore lakes
Mayor Mohd. Majid Hussain on Wednesday called for improvement of vegetation structure and water conservation measures at the Mir Alam Tank.
It was also time the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) took up full-fledged restoration of at least 10 lake projects on a priority basis to demonstrate as case studies of restoration of water bodies.
Chairing the first meeting of the newly-formed Greater Hyderabad Biodiversity Management Committee in his capacity as the ex-officio chairman at the Municipal Corporation head office, Mr. Hussain urged the officials concerned to see that no sewage lines are connected to the water bodies.
The Mayor and GHMC Commissioner M.T. Krishna Babu were all praise for the efforts of the urban biodiversity wing in evolving an action plan for biodiversity administration which had helped achieve the 59-point score in the City Biodiversity Index, up from 39.
Technical support
Mr. Krishna Babu urged speeding up the process of constituting technical support groups for conducting external evaluation of various urban biodiversity initiatives besides consulting various national and international organisations for financial support.
Experts -- S. Ashok Kumar, Dr. Y.N.R. Varma, Dr. Sulman Zafar Siddiqi, Dr. V.C. Gupta, Karamtot Thara Bai and G.M. Ratna Kumari -- suggested development of more herbal gardens in the city and planting of more medicinal trees during the greenery programmes. HMDA Member (Environment) and GHMC Secretary also participated in the meeting as special invitees.
The expert members have also wanted developing a database based on the survey of the agencies/ industries using local biodiversity resources for commercial purposes. The committee had also designated Additional Commissioner (Urban Biodiversity) N. Chandramohan Reddy as ex-officio member secretary-cum-treasurer of the committee.
Majid Hussian chairs Greater Hyderabad Biodiversity Management Committee, harps on clean water bodies sans sewage lines.
