Conservation of wildlife part of our ethos, encourages compassion and coexistence: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said conservation of wildlife and habitat have been a part of India's cultural ethos, which encourages compassion and coexistence.

"For ages, conservation of wildlife and habitat have been a part of our cultural ethos, which encourages compassion and coexistence," said Prime Minister Modi while addressing a convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals at Gandhinagar.

"Our Vedas spoke of the protection of animals. Emperor Asoka put great emphasis on preventing the destruction of forests and the killing of animals," he said.

Stating that India is blessed with diverse ecological habitats, and also has 4 bio-diversity hotspots, he said: "With 2.4 per cent of the world's land area, India contributes to about 8 per cent of the world's known bio-diversities. They are the Eastern Himalayas, the Western Ghats, Indo-Myanmar landscape, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands."

He said India is also home to around 500 species of migratory birds from across the globe.

Emphasising on values of conservation, he said: "India has been championing Climate Action based on the values of conservation, sustainable lifestyle and green development model."

"Inspired by Gandhi ji, the ethos of non-violence and protection of animals and nature has been suitably enshrined in the Constitution of India. It also finds mention is several laws and legislations," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated the United Nations (UN) Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) through video conferencing.The UN CMS being organized in Gandhinagar, Gujarat began today and will conclude on February 22.The summit will bring together 1200 delegates from over 110 countries to deliberate on the alarming decline of migratory species.Topics such as the impact of infrastructure development on the migratory patterns of animals will be discussed in the 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS COP13).