The Indian marine and coastal biodiversity is under serious threat from developmental projects, according to experts at the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Though India has a 7500-km coastline, which supports almost 30 per cent of its population in biological and economic wastelands, the coastal and marine stretch in India is coming under unprecedented threats from various development projects including ports, power plants, ship yards and aquaculture.

Use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and its impact on global biodiversity will soon come under the scanner of the United Nations Environment Programme.

LUCKNOW: The numbers of the Gangetic dolphins in Uttar Pradesh have registered an increase, reveals the latest dolphin census report.

JAIPUR: As thousands of delegates gather in India for the 11th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad, from 8 - 19 October 2012, a new initiative will be unveiled to help countries meet some of their obligations under the legally-binding treaty whilst also reducing poverty.

It will show how the two seemingly disparate worlds of poverty eradication and biodiversity conservation are linked, and its launch comes ahead of the UN's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October.

LUCKNOW: The Gangetic river dolphin census and awareness campaign was flagged off by transport minister Raja Mahendra Aridaman Singh on Friday.

KOLKATA, 5 OCT: The state government is planning to launch a five year plan for increasing the production of fish, rice and vegetables, state Agriculture Minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya said at

Separate teams to conduct surveys on 16 stretches, covering 2,800 km of the river system.

Shrimp farmers and exporters in the State are worried.