Durgam Cheruvu, the secret lake in Madhapur, is rich in biodiversity, but is not getting the attention it deserves because too many departments are involved in its management.

The irrigation department is the owner of the lake, the hill slopes belong to the GHMC and the HMDA, and the tourism department developed the infrastructure such as the cottages.

Jaipur: The state capital of Rajasthan will soon join the club of top ten most populated cities of urban agglomerations in the country.

India played a leadership role in getting developed countries to double funding for the conservation of biodiversity.

Summing up the outcome of the 11th Conference of Parties (CoP) to the Convention on Biodiversity held in Hyderabad recently, environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan said on Monday that India had succeeded in getting developed countries to pledge $8 billion by 2020 to developing nations to help conserve biodiversity.

Developed countries agreed to double funding to support efforts in developing states towards meeting the internationally-agreed biodiversity targets, and the main goals of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity (SPB) 2011-2020.

Developing countries also have agreed to increase funding in support of actions to halt the rate of loss of biodiversity at the eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which ended here on Saturday, CBD secretariat stated in a press release.

Logjam over funding pushes talks beyond closing time at biodiversity summit

The Convention on Biological Diversity summit ran into overtime on Friday night, as nations struggled to find a way out of the logjam on funding talks, negotiating far beyond their scheduled closing time. While countries have set ambitious goals — called the Aichi Targets — to protect the world's plants, animals and natural habitats by 2020, they could not agree on how to raise the money needed to reach these goals until this article went to press.

Some 402 new species facing extinction have been added to the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), says a report released on Wednesday at COP 11, the biodiversity conference being held in Hyderabad. India ranked seven in struggling to protect the species on the list.

Air-breathing snails known as Little Flat Top, found in Alabama (US), and the island-dwelling cockroach (Seychelles) have recently moved into the extinct list.
The report revealed that 83 per cent of Madagascar’s palms are threatened with extinction, putting the livelihoods of local people at risk. The Suicide Palm, which grows up to 60 feet and dies a few months after flowering and producing seeds, is among them.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday pledged $50 million to strengthen institutional mechanism for biodiversity conservation in the country.

In a bid to kick-start the stalled process of raising global funds for biodiversity conservation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh committed $50 million (over Rs. 264 crore) for what he called the ‘Hyderabad Pledge’ as India takes over the two-year presidency of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

This sum would “strengthen the institutional mechanism for biodiversity conservation in India. We will use these funds to enhance the technical and human capabilities of our national and State mechanisms to attain CBD objectives,” Dr. Singh told delegates at the inauguration of the high-level segment of the U.N. summit on Tuesday. “We have also earmarked funds to promote similar capacity building in developing countries.”

An e-Atlas of Marine-Important Bird Areas , was launched by the BirdLife International at the ongoing 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) here on