panaji consistent with prime minister narendra modis digital india vision peoples biodiversity registers pbrs inventoried at the village level by residents will soon be converted into electronically accessible documents the announcement was made by union minister of state for environment ashwini kumar choubey in goa on tuesday pbrs are documents prepared by locals in which they record the biodiversity of flora and fauna in their region pbrs are required under the biological diversity act 2002choubey on tuesday launched from goa the national campaign to upgrade and validate pbrs across india he said that so far over 267 lakh pbrs have been readied across the country by villagelevel biodiversity management committees bmcs recording the biodiversity through the pbrs will help meet the challenges of the future such as those posed by climate change choubey saidi have seen firsthand the fury of nature in uttarakhand said the minister whose family survived the 2013 floodswe need not only awareness among the people but also peoples participation he said while speaking at the neura village panchayat in north goagoa environment minister nilesh cabral said that within the next four to five years the state government will revive the bundh system in the state chief minister pramod sawant said that the government has already spent hundreds of crores to help restore bandhs but in many places people are allowing saline waters ingress to facilitate free fish breeding we will not permit this said sawantwe have started noting a reduction in water availability we can see the increased dumping of waste including ewaste said sawant speaking at the event which was organised by the union environment ministry the goa state biodiversity board and the national biodiversity authority he added each one of us needs to find solutions to these issues at the village levelthe chairman of the national biodiversity authority c achalender reddy was also present on the occasionan exhibition showcasing the unique products from each biodiversity management committee in goa was on display state biodiversity awards were also presentedthe best bmc award for north goa went to penha de franca for preserving its khazans coastal wetlands plateaus and mangroves in the face of the tremendous pressure of real estate developmentfor south goa the award went to raia for reviving a wetland for migratory birdsthe bmc appreciation prize went to chodan madel and piligao bmcs from north goa and veremvaghurme and rivona bmcs from south goain the individual category the award for biodiversity conservation went to dattaram desai from savoi verem for south goa for the identification restoration and development of waterbodies across pondathe biodiversity enthusiast award went to vitthal shelke and the applied biodiversity researcher honour went to professor savita kerkar