Correspondent
IMPHAL, December 30
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he need to establish a school of taxonomy was mooted in order to properly identity the species available in the North Eastern region which is one the biodiversity hot spot among India’s three hot spots.
The idea to establish a school of taxonomy was mooted while Prof Waikhom Vishwanath of Manipur University’s life science department was delivering a lecture on ‘recent trends and innovations in fish taxonomy’ as part of the 2-day ISCA Regional Science Congress for North Eastern Region 2013 on Innovations in Science and Technology for Inclusive Development at the varsity’s Anthropology department hall here this afternoon.“The proper naming and identification of the species available in the region become an important issue when the preservation and conservation of endemic species comes up and subsequently taxonomy comes into the picture”, says Prof Vishwanath who is also known as ‘fish man’ for his commendable research works on freshwater fish species. “The study of bones (of the fish species) is also an important area for further scientific research works”.
The best way to identify the species should be made first with the human eyes, feels the professor who had credicted as many as 13 newest freshwater fish species in the recent times in the Inernational Union for Conservation of Nature’s list.
In presentation on the utilization of agri-horticultural foresty and fishery resources of the North East India for incusive development, former Vice Chancellor of the Manipur University Prof H Tombi(Retd) has expressed the need to take steps to utilize the huge number of important agro-bioresources available in the north east region.
Earlier Professor Ashok K Saxena editor in chief, Everyman’s Science journal of ISCA inaugurated the science congress in presence of Vice Chancellor of Manipur University Prof H Nandakumar Sarma at the latter’s secretariat here today.
General Secretary of the organisation committee and head of department of the MU’s earth science Prof Arun Kumar gave the opening remark of the congress while personalities such as General Secretary-membership affairs ISCA NB Basu also spoke on the occasion. ISCA executive member Dr Vijay Laxmi Saxena also released a souvenir of the gathering. More than 300 delegates from different states which include scientists, innovators and scholars have been participating the Science congress which is scheduled to conclude tomorrow.
