Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu today called upon people to become environmentally conscious and adopt sustainable lifestyles in times of climate change.
“It is high time that we make amends to bring the desired change in the health of our planet,” he said.
The Vice President was on a visit to the Forest Research Centre for Coastal Ecosystem (FRCCE) in Visakhapatnam and inaugurated the institute’s Marine Interpretation Unit.
The unit has been created to disseminate knowledge on the marine environment and to work with coastal communities.
Naidu said that the display units in the Marine Interpretation Unit showing various wood samples at progressive stages of degradation were very informative.
Naidu was apprised of the bird diversity of the Eastern Ghats as well as species of birds associated with mangroves along the 114 km long coastline of the Visakhapatnam district.
The Research Centre is the lone establishment in the country for research on timber protection under seawater in its total perspective.
Naidu said that he was happy that the FRCCE was conducting research on forest biodiversity and forest genetic resources management with respect to mangroves and coastal ecosystems of the East and West coast.
“Their research work on the mangrove ecosystem as well as the biodiversity of Eastern Ghats is all the more critical in the time of ecological degradation and climate change,” he added.
Naidu expressed his happiness that the centre has distributed 100 preservative-treated catamarans made of perishable timber to the fishermen of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu as a measure towards alleviating poverty.
He reiterated that “the ultimate aim of science is to bring happiness and make people’s lives better.” The Vice President lauded the centre for the work that was being done there for the benefit of coastal communities.