Global recognition for Koraput hailed
The Hindu Prime Minister Manmohan Singh honours a tribal of Koraput at the inaugural ceremony of the 99th Indian Science Congress at KIIT Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik; Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Vilasrao Deshmukh, Union Minister (State) for Planning, Science & Technology and Earth Sciences Ashwani Kumar, Governor Muralidhar Chandrakant Bhandare and Science Congress president Geetha Bali are present. Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday applauded the tribal community of Koraput for being chosen by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation for recognition under its Globally Important Agricultural Heritage sites programme.
In his inaugural speech at the 99th annual session of the Indian Science Congress, which opened here, Dr. Singh said: “I congratulate the tribal community of Koraput for the global recognition they have received [from FAO] for their contribution to conserving biodiversity and climate resilient farming systems.'
The Prime Minister also extolled the knowledge base available with the tribal communities of Kharia, Santhals, Gonds and Kolhas of Odisha on medicinal use of locally available plants.
Exhorting the scientific community to explore and rejuvenate traditional knowledge available in different parts of the country, he said, “one needs to go no further than the tribal communities of Kharia, Santhals, Gonds and Kolhas, who live in the deep forest areas of Mayurbhanj and have a reservoir of knowledge on medicinal use of locally available plants.''
He honoured two tribals from Koraput – Raita Manduli and Chandra Pradhan.
Dr. Singh paid rich tributes to the former Chief Minister, Biju Patnaik, for setting up the Unesco's Kalinga prize 60 years ago.
“Indian science owes much to the vision of our early nation builders, who gave science a prominent place in our development planning.''
No comments:
Post a Comment