Food Expo to mark Biodiversity day

Chennai : A Food exhibition is being organised in the city to mark the International Biodiversity Day (IBD) on May 22. The exhibition, organised by National Biodiversity Authority at the
Kalaivanar Arangam, will be open to public from 1.00 pm to 5.00 pm, National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) Chairman Dr.V.B.Mathur and Secretary J.Justin Mohan told reporters at the Press Information Bureau (PIB) office today.

Highlighting the National level celebrations to be organised to mark the IBD, they said Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change will inaugurate the celebrations and an exhibition tomorrow in the presence of Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Tamil Nadu Environment Minister
Siva V.Meyyanathan. They said about 25 states are participating in the exhibition which will have 50 stalls, where the public can know more about the local foods of various states.

Apart from the exhibition, a special postal cover on Biodiversity by India post will be released on the occasion. Ahead of the IBD, a slogan writing competition was being held for the past
one month. NBA has received 16,000 entries for this competition and the final result will be announced at the event. The main aim of the competition is to make the children and youngsters
think about conserving the Biodiversity and on this line the theme of the competition is ‘Five things to do to conserve the Biodiversity’.

May 22is celebrated as an International Day for Biological Diversity every year globally to create awareness among the citizens and stakeholders on the importance and need for the conservation of biological diversity. The theme of the IDB for this year is “Building a shared future for all life”. The NBA was established by the Central Government in 2003 to implement
India’s Biological Diversity Act (2002). The NBA is a Statutory Body and it performs facilitative, regulatory and advisory functions for the Government of India on issues of conservation, sustainable use of biological resources and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of biological
resources, they said.