Extension Lecture on United Nations Minamata Convention
Aligarh : “Researchers should focus on accumulation, biomagnification and control of mercury pollution as part of the Indian contribution to the United Nations Minamata Convention”, said Prof (Dr.) Asif Qureshi, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Hyderabad. He was delivering an extension lecture as part of the weeklong ‘World Environment Day Programme’ for sensitisation and awareness on the UN Convention on Mercury, organised by the Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University.
Prof Qureshi said, the United Nations Minamata Convention is an international treaty to protect the world environment from mercury pollution, and India is one of the first 140 countries to sign this treaty.
Delineating the salient features of the UN Convention, Prof Fareed Ahmad Khan, the organising host said, the UN treaty has 35 articles regarding the control of mercury pollution, the role of scientists working in the field of life sciences to focus on the uptake, accumulation of mercury in food chains including plants and animals and their consequences on human health and ecosystem balances.
“The convention expects active role of WHO, UNEP in addition to developing effective scientific techniques and medical treatment protocols to control the mercury pollution and trade of mercury polluting items”, he said.
He further said, some very interesting scientific research as per the requirement of this convention will soon be published/ contributed by the Department of Botany, AMU.
In his presidential remarks, Prof Wasim Ahmad, Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences, AMU and Co-Patron of the programme urged upon the scientists to focus on quality research in this area to keep India as a leading, active and significant contributor in controlling the mercury pollution at national and global scale.
Earlier, Prof Nafees Ahmad Khan, Chairperson, Department of Botany introduced the speaker and highlighted the research milestones achieved by him.
The programme ended with a vote of thanks.