A review to help modernize two of India’s premier survey organizations has suggested their merger, greater autonomy, and a shift from Kolkata’s warm and humid atmosphere to drier Hyderabad. On January 5, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests published the report of its task forces appraising the Botanical Survey of India (bsi) and the Zoological Survey of India (zsi). These government bodies determine India’s plant and animal diversity.
Set up in 1890 (bsi) and 1916 (zsi), the surveys need overhauling. “Both institutions have played a tremendous role in documenting India’s biodiversity in the past,” said Priya Davidar, dean of the School of Life Sciences at the Pondicherry University. “But radical changes are needed if they are to join the modern scientific world. ”
It is widely known that the bureaucratic functioning of the two institutions inhibits collaborative research. “There is much red tape before projects are cleared,” Aparna Watve, bsi alumnus, said. “The institutions are so conservative that we got computers just five years ago,” she added.
Coming from government task forces, the report only hints at the problems afflicting the surveys and then goes on to suggest remedies. There are four major changes it seeks. One, that the surveys should recognize the work of other institutions and individuals in what is its mandate: survey, collection and documentation of wild plants and animals. They should have greater autonomy and “should be viewed as nodal, but not exclusive, agencies”.
.jpg?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
