Uttarakhand Chief Secretary S Ramaswamy chaired a consultative meeting on Tuesday following selection of Uttarakhand along with the State of Maharashtra for biodiversity finance initiative project approved by the Government of India.

The Union ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change selected Uttarakhand and Maharashtra for the biodiversity finance innovative project with the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India being given the task of preparing the plan for this project.

Expressing happiness at the state being selected by the Government of India for the project, the chief secretary  assured the WII director VB Mathur of all possible assistance from the State administration to the institute in preparation of the plan for the project.

He opined that various Government departments are working on biodiversity-related tasks which need to be coordinated.

The institute director informed the officials in the meeting that at present there are about 291 biodiversity related schemes being implemented by about 19 departments. He said that an assessment had been carried out regarding the requirement for money for these schemes which is higher than the fund allocated for the schemes at present.

This gap is expected to be filled by implementation of the Government of India’s biodiversity finance initiative project so as to enable achievement of cen per cent target of the schemes being implemented under the biodiversity head. Earlier, the chief secretary also presided over discussion on the Uttarakhand biodiversity board manual under the purview of power granted to the State Government under the Biodiversity Act 2002, section 63 (1). The consultative meeting held in the Chief Secretary’s office was also attended by various officials including the head of the Uttarakhand biodiversity board Rakesh Shah, State biodiversity board member secretary Sargam Singh Rasaily, the additional secretary of forests, Meenakshi Joshi and the deputy director of the board Dhananjay Prasad.