Gangtok Develops its City Biodiversity Index

Gangtok has developed its City Biodiversity Index (CBI), with support from ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, South Asia, under the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety-supported INTERACT- Bio Project.

Its robust score in the CBI shows that Gangtok has a large number of native species, and also undertakes good governance and management of biodiversity. The index will help the city to mainstream biodiversity conservation into urban planning and will be re-visited after five years to map the progress.

Gangtok is one the very few cities in India to have developed the CBI, which forms part of the Climate Smart Cities Framework 2.0 that has been launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India.