A burning question doing the rounds in administrative circles here these days is whether or not a state minister holding the biodiversity portfolio has the authority to instruct the state biodiversity board to stop issuing notices to companies violating the mandatory provisions of the Biological Diversity Act 2002, aimed at regulating access to bio-resources for commercial use and access benefit sharing by local communities or the stakeholders.
A raging controversy has erupted on this issue after a section of the media reported that state minister for industry, Kailash Vijayvargiya, who also holds the biodiversity portfolio, chose to bail out the industry lobby by telling the state biodiversity board authorities in no uncertain terms that industries using bio-resources should not be served notices under Section 7 of Biological Diversity Act 2002 and Section 17(1) of Madhya Pradesh Biological Diversity Rules without getting a nod from the state Cabinet.
Mr Vijayvargiya’s pro-industry posture is bound to create a logjam when it comes to enforcing the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act 2002 passed by Parliament and enacted in 2003. The three main objectives of this act are conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the use of biological resources and knowledge. It is also beings said in official circles that the minister’s controversial instruction is unwarranted at this stage when the National Green Tribunal has already taken up a case which would eventually decide the issue of bringing the coal producing companies under the ambit of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and the “access benefit sharing” regime. Under Section 2(G) of BDA “fair and equitable benefit sharing” means sharing of benefits as determined by the National Biodiversity Authority under section 21. Besides, the state biodiversity board has powers to regulate by granting of approvals for commercial utilisation or bio-survey and bio-utilisation of any biological resource by Indians under Section 23(B). A booklet published by Madhya Pradesh state biodiversity board (MPSBB) and released to mark the World Biodiversity day this year says that MPSBB has pioneered access and benefit sharing procedure and is the first state-level biodiversity board to issue notices to many industries and organisations that are utilising biological resources. Section 7 of Biological Diversity Act relates to prior intimation to the state biodiversity board for obtaining biological resource for certain purposes. It says that no person, who is a citizen of India or a body corporate, association or organisation which is registered in India, shall obtain any biological resource for commercial utilisation, or bio-survey and bio-utilisation for commercial purpose except after giving prior intimation to the state biodiversity board. The provisions of this Section do not apply to the local people and communities of the area, including growers and cultivators of biodiversity and those practicing indigenous medicine.