Experts from Bangladesh and different parts of the country participated in the symposium jointly organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Patna University, and University of Chittagong, Bangladesh, on Saturday.
As many as 47 participants discussed trans-boundary issues related to the biodiversity of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river system.
The objective of the symposium was to improve and integrate the water regimes in South Asia. State environment and forest department secretary Dipak Kumar Singh, who was the chief guest, appreciated the academically enriched presentations in the symposium.
Participants from Bangladesh included Munir Ahmed, professor of zoology at University of Chittagong, and Elidabeth F Mansu.
Prof Ramesh C Sharma gave his presentation on the status, stress and management of river biodiversity of upper Ganga while Prof B K Sharma spoke on the floodplains of Brahmaputra river basin.
Paper on the management of catchment area of the Ganga and its conservation was presented by Brij Gopal, former environment science professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, while Ashwini Wanganeo of Barkatullah University, Bhopal, presented his paper on conservation plan for aquatic fauna in the Bramaputra basin.
Other participants from India includes SP Biswas from Dibrugarh University, Assam, Sankar Dayal, state disaster management authority, Samir Kumar Sinha from Wildlife Trust of India, Atul Aditya Pandey, geology professor, Patna Science College, MP Sinha from Ranchi University and Madhumita Mukherjee, executive director, national fishery development board, Hyderabad.
The speakers talked about the recent existential dilemmas in the womb of the Ganga, pollution load and self purifying capacity of river Damodar, geomorphic condition of a part of the Ganga river system between Varanasi and Munger and also identified stakeholders in the Ganga basin to reconcile conservation and competing land uses and processes in the landscape.
