PM to lay foundation for biodiversity museum

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will unveil a pylon and lay the foundation stone for biodiversity park and museum in Hyderabad next week to mark the ongoing global biodiversity meet.

Manmohan Singh will be on a day-long visit to Hyderabad on Oct 16 to address the United Nations conference on biodiversity known as the 11th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP11) to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD).

Delegates from over 170 countries are attending the COP11, which began on Oct 8 and will continue till Oct 19.

The VIPs attending the conference will plant 300 to 400 rare and endangered plant species in the proposed park, which along with the museum is coming up at a cost of Rs.100 crore. The Andhra Pradesh government has earmarked 15 acres of land for the pylon, park and museum in Gachibowli.

The forest department is setting up a separate biodiversity park on 10 acres at Dulapally Reserve Forests on the city outskirts.

Chief Minister N.Kiran Kumar Reddy Friday inspected the pylon and directed the officials to beautify the entire area in a befitting manner.

A statement from the chief minister's office said, the government had created a network integrated protected system covering four biotic provinces.

The state has six national parks, 21 wildlife sanctuaries, and a Biosphere reserve comprising 13,000 sq. kms out of forest area of 63,180 sq. kms.

A biodiversity Research Laboratory has also been established at Srisailam.

IANS