Gupteswar Forest : Biodiversity Heritage Site
The Odisha government declared the Gupteswar forest in Koraput district as its fourth Biodiversity Heritage Site (BHS).
- Biodiversity Heritage Site are areas that are unique, ecologically fragile ecosystems having rich biodiversity comprising of any one or more of the components such as;
- species richness, high endemism, presence of rare, endemic and threatened species, keystone species, species of evolutionary significance, wild ancestors of domestic/cultivated species or landraces or their varieties, past pre-eminence of biological components represented by fossil beds and having cultural or aesthetic values.
- Under the Biological Diversity Act, the State Governments are empowered to notify in the official gazette, in consultation with ‘local bodies’, areas of biodiversity importance as Biodiversity Heritage Sites.
- Also, the State Government in consultation with the Central Government may frame rules for the management and conservation of BHS.
- The State Governments are empowered to frame schemes for compensating or rehabilitating any person or section of people economically affected by such notification.
