Context: Recently, Karnataka Biodiversity Board has decided to declare four areas in the State as biodiversity heritage sites.

The proposed biodiversity heritage sites include the following:

• Antaragange Betta in Kolar: This area has a unique and perennial water source flowing all through the year.
• Aadi Narayana Swamy Betta in Chickballapur: It serves as a habitat to many dry-belt species protected by locals.
• Mahima Ranga Betta in Nelamangala, Bengaluru: It is a prominent lung space surviving in Bengaluru.
• Urumbi area on the Kumaradhara river basin in Dakshina Kannada: This area has a fragile environmental system and there were proposals to set a small scale hydro plant in this region.

Additional Facts
Biodiversity Heritage Sites

• Biodiversity Heritage Sites (BHS) are well defined areas that are unique, ecologically fragile ecosystems – terrestrial, coastal and inland waters or marine having rich biodiversity.

Criteria

• Richness of wild as well as domesticated species or intra-specific categories.
• High endemism.
• Presence of rare and threatened species, keystone species, species of evolutionary significance.
• Wild ancestors of domestic/cultivated species or their varieties.
• Past pre-eminence of biological components represented by fossil beds and having significant cultural, ethical or aesthetic values are important for the maintenance of cultural diversity with or without a long history of human association with them.

Legal provisions

• The State Governments can notify the Biodiversity Heritage Sites (BHS) in consultation with local governing bodies under Section 37 of Biological Diversity Act of 2002.
• Under sub-section (2) of Section 37, the State Government in consultation with the Central Government may frame rules for the management and conservation of BHS.

Significance

• Notifying an area as a biodiversity heritage site will help protect the rich and unique ecosystem in a particular area from further destruction.
• This would help not only help conserve the biodiversity of the region but also ensure ecological security and sustainable development for human beings as well given that such areas also often represent interfaces between nature, culture and society.
• Given that BHS also emphasize a participatory approach to conservation efforts, the notification would help instil and nurture conservation ethics in all sections of the society.