Zoological Survey of India will celebrate its 108th Foundation Day on 1st July at Nicco Park, Kolkata. Hon’ble Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, Sri Bhupender Yadav will inaugurate the celebration. He will also be declaring the opening of Animal Taxonomy Summit-2023 being organised by ZSI to commemorate the occasion.
The events around the celebrations will focus on “Mission LiFE” (Mission Life-style For Environment) where ZSI is set to showcase its effort in reaching out to two crores people across the country with message for environment protection through street plays, public events, and seminars. ZSI will present a gala cultural program to highlight environmental issues and its effort to reach out to the citizens.
The Hon’ble Minister will be releasing the Animal Discoveries – 2022 comprising more than 600 new species and new records added to the total list of animals for the country. He will also be releasing publications on ‘75 wetland fauna of India’ as well as ‘75 endemic birds of India’ to commemorate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Shri Chandra Prakash Goyal, IFS, Director General of Forests and Special Secretary, MoEFCC will also grace the occasion and address the gathering.
The Animal Taxonomy Summit – 2023 is the first of its kind for the country wherein 400 delegates across India and abroad including Natural History Museum, London will be participating in the event and presenting their research findings. About 12 eminent invited speakers will deliver talks on different aspects of animal taxonomy, biodiversity conservation and biogeography. Selected peer reviewed research papers presented during the summit will be published as a special volume of the Records of Zoological Survey of India, a pioneer journal of Indian Zoology, being published by ZSI over the last 100 years.
Dr. Dhriti Banerjee, the first woman Director of ZSI will share details of the MoUs signed between ZSI and some leading institutions and Royal Govt of Bhutan. These MoUs are intended to develop and foster an interest amongst the youth in research study in biodiversity and taxonomy.
The three days’ ATS aims to bring the leading animal taxonomists in one platform to discuss the recent advancements in taxonomy and to facilitate faunal identification through modern tools. The summit will be concluded on 3rd July 2023. The recommendations of the summit will be conveyed to the Government of India.