Biodiversity action plan for more local bodies in Kerala: CM
The Hindu
‘State committed to nature conservation while formulating infra projects’
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has announced plans to extend the biodiversity action plan to more panchayats across the State in the next financial year.
Speaking after presenting the awards for biodiversity conservation for the years 2019 and 2020 at a function here on Thursday, he said the action plan taken up in association with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would be implemented by the Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) constituted by the local bodies.
Hampi, the UNESCO-recognised historical site, was the capital of the Vijayanagara empire from 1336 to 1565. Foreign travellers from Persia, Europe and other parts of the world have chronicled the wealth of the place and the unique cultural mores of this kingdom built on the banks of the Tungabhadra river. There are fine descriptions to be found of its temples, farms, markets and trading links, remnants of which one can see in the ruins now. The Literature, architecture of this era continue inspire awe.
Unfurling the zine handed to us at the start of the walk, we use brightly-coloured markers to draw squiggly cables across the page, starting from a sepia-toned vintage photograph of the telegraph office. Iz, who goes by the pronouns they/them, explains, “This building is still standing, though it shut down in 2013,” they say, pointing out that telegraphy, which started in Bengaluru in 1854, was an instrument of colonial power and control. “The British colonised lands via telegraph cables, something known as the All Red Line.”