Former secretary of the Department of Ecology and Environment Dr A N Yallappa Reddy said a new vision of reality was needed for the conservation of nature as development continues to exploit the resources.
He was speaking during the launch of a webinar series on Sunday. Reddy said over-dependence on the exploitation of natural resources in the name of development had made the revitalisation of ecosystems difficult.
Sourcing raw materials for building industries has exhausted natural sand from rivers and streams. “Today, our top priority is mining, making granite, crushing and destroying rocks instead of conservation of resources”, he said.
He said there was a need to protect Dharwar Cratons, which are a stable part of Earth’s crust and as old as 3.5 billion years, from the industries. The Cratons are found in Nandi Hills, Savandurga and Jnana Bharathi campus of Bengaluru University. “The preservation of such rocks which can even help in the tracing of the history of the earth is important”, he said.
Reddy opined that a global network of interlocked and site-specific ecological systems should be established. Bioregionalism, harnessing ecosystem services to the fullest and a system-bound ecosystem is the need of the hour to revive living systems’ he said.
T J Renuka Prasad, former coordinator of Biopark in Bengaluru University, said that the park, spread over 600 acres, had many water bodies, rich flora and fauna but the government had failed to see the value of the lung space and had been trying to to exploit it by leasing the land.