Dailong village in Manipur declared Biodiversity Heritage Site

The Manipur Government in the last week of May 2017 declared Dailong village of Tamenglong district as a Biodiversity Heritage Site of the state.

A notification in this connection was issued by Kengoo Zuringla, Joint Secretary of Forest and Environment division.

The village, which covers an area of 11.35 sq km, has been declared as Biodiversity Heritage Site under Section 37(1) of Biological Diversity Act, 2002. The declaration was made after the recommendation of Manipur Biodiversity Board.

About Biological Diversity Act, 2002

• The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 is an Act of the Parliament of India for preservation of biological diversity in India.

• It provides mechanism for equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of traditional biological resources and knowledge.

• The Act was enacted to meet the obligations under Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), to which India is a party.

• Biodiversity has been defined under Section 2(b) of the Act as "the variability among living organisms from all sources and the ecological complexes of which they are part, and includes diversity within species or between species and of eco-systems".

• The Act also defines, biological resources as "plants, animals and micro-organisms or parts thereof, their genetic material and by-products (excluding value added products) with actual or potential use or value, but does not include human genetic material."