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In a first of its kind event in Asia, the International Bioacoustics Council (IBAC), London is organising its 26th International Bioacoustics Congress in Haridwar in conjunction with the Department of Zoology and Environmental Science of the Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya. 

The five-day Congress which was inaugurated here is based on the art and science of vocal communication in the nature with researchers and scientists from 26 countries from six continents of the world slated to participate in the discussions on some of the interesting topics like how birds maintain vocal communication in rapidly fluctuating environments, response of bottlenose dolphins, song quality in Zebra finches, how many beings converse with infra and ultra sounds and other topics of interest. 

The noted environmentalists attending the event gave a clarion call to re-establish the connection with nature and expressed concern over ecological disturbance increasing at fast rate. 

Presiding over the inaugural function of the Congress at a hotel in here, State Finance Minister Prakash Pant said, “The birth place of three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Sharda — Uttarakhand— with over 66 per cent forest cover and rich biodiversity has conserved environment all these decades. Since time immemorial our sages of yore taught us to connect with nature and they could understand and communicate with nature. Of late human-animal conflicts have seen significant rise, which needs to be checked.” 

The Minister said that whether climate change was the only reason or there are some other factors which are affecting the ecology of the Himalayas, needs to be studied. He said that the discussions during the five-day Congress would definitely lead to some solutions for ecological conservation. The Himalayas are geologically active and growing, an aspect which also needs to be addressed, he added. 

BJP legislator Adesh Chauhan wished the entire congregation success and said that he hoped the results of the Congress could help decide the route map for an important purpose. The convener of the IBAC-2017, Professor Dinesh Bhatt told The Pioneer, “The first meeting of IBAC was conducted in 1971 in Kinross, United Kingdom. Since then 25 meetings have been conducted in different countries including Germany, Brazil, France, Portugal, Italy and other countries. Two venue proposals were there for the congress — Canada and India. I am glad that after voting, the executive council chose India as the venue.” 

The vice chancellor of Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, Surendra Kumar said that the study of acoustics gives evidence to substantiate whether conservation efforts are working so it is an important conference for the ecologists and environmentalists. The IBAC chairman Professor Ole Naesbye Larsen, David Raebi from Britain and AK Pati from Odissa also expressed their views on the occasion, addressing the delegates who had come from across the world. 

Presiding as the guest of honour, Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation  (HESCO) founder Anil Prakash Joshi said, “The pace at which degeneration of environment is happening, at the end of the century 25 to 50 per cent of the biodiversity will be lost. Then with whom shall we communicate? This ecological imbalance is a matter of concern.” 

Stressing further on the need of conservation, Joshi said, “If a patient dies in hospital due to wrong medicine intake, we are concerned but we are least bothered if a river a dies. It never comes in census or GDP so we must lay stress of GEP which is Gross Environment product. It is pathetic that organisations like UN are also concerned more of economic fight in ecological disguise,” added Joshi. “In Uttarakhand we are concentrating on ecological growth matrix. The State of Uttarakhand is philosophically and culturally rich and GEP is being considered in overall growth,” he opined. 

The conference is being sponsored by Ministry of Earth Sciences, ministry of Science and Technology, Wildlife Acoustics USA, Dodotronics Electronics, UK, Cetacean Research Technology UK, Himalik Herbs, India and Frontier Labs Australia. 

Source: The Pioneer