New Delhi, Oct 28 : President Pratibha Devisingh Patil will leave for Jaipur later today to inaugurate the 12th World Lake Conference there on Monday.

Experts from across the world will attend the Conference, and will discuss ways in which lakes can be conserved. This is the first time that this Conference is being held in the South Asian region.

This will be the President's first visit to Rajasthan since she was sworn-in in July this year. Patil was the Governor of Rajasthan before she was elected as the President of India.

She will return to New Delhi on Monday evening, a President's Secretariat release said.

The Conference is in the series of conferences held every two years since 1985, under the aegis of the International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC) Foundation (Japan).

The 12th edition of the Conference has been named as Taal 2007 (Taal is common Indian term for lakes).

A special logo has been adopted for the Conference. The logo represents natural lakes in the Himalayan belt and other hilly regions of the country. It depicts their recreational and spiritual cultural significance in Indian society.

The ‘shikara’ (boat) in the logo reflects also their value for tourism and livelihoods. Further, the leaves of ‘chinar’ symbolize the natural vegetated catchments, so essential for maintaining high water quality in the lakes. (ANI)