Students debate on biodiversity

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Is biodiversity conservation the duty of biodiversity-rich nations only? This was the topic of a debate that saw two teams at the Christ Nagar Higher Secondary School participating in heated exchanges.The teams had four members, each from the higher secondary classes. While one team thought it was the prime duty of biodiversity nations to conserve its biodiversity spots, the other team stressed the point that biodiversity spots were not a treasure of the respective country alone.The first team opined that other nations must not be given an opportunity to preserve the biodiversity hot spots as it may cause unpleasant obligations for the host countries. Like India being a sovereign country should be capable of taking care of its own flora and fauna rather than depend on others for preserving it, they said.This was strongly opposed by the other team, who opined that biodiversity cannot be the priority of the host nation but it is the responsibility of the whole world because the ecosystem of nature is alike throughout the world. Any visible changes in the hotspots can cause an imbalance in nature, climate, life and the vegetation, they said.If the biodiversity hotspots aren’t protected, it will lead to a global disaster, climatic changes, imbalance in flora and fauna, unnatural calamities, team members said.The debate was conducted as an activity for International School Award.