Jim Knight, Minister for National and International Biodiversity in the department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who will be visiting India for five days from Thursday, is to deliver the keynote address to the Delhi Summit on sustainable Development which commenced today.
The summit will take forward the Millennium Development Goals which were set at the World Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg in 2002.
Britain is extending 12,000 pounds for the Delhi Summit and also for preserving wild life in India, he said.
Knight will be visiting wildlife sanctuaries in Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan and the Vulture Preservation Park in Pinjore in Haryana. He will also visit the Natural History Society in Mumbai.
Knight said he would be taking forward the Dialogue on Sustainable Development, which was signed in October between the UK and Indian Government.
"The goal of the Sustainable Development Dialogues is to put sustainability principles at the core of UK government relations with key emerging countries, to move from a development co-operation relationship to one based on partnership," Knight said, adding that a key theme of the UK-India Dialogue is wildlife crime.
In Delhi, he will have discussions with several Union ministers including Minister for Panchayati Raj, Youth Affairs and Sports, Mani Shanker Aiyar, to discuss how they could support each other and share experience and expertise in sustainable development including biodiversity, environment, forestry and rural development.