The country has already been shaken by the coal allocation scam or Coalgate but there is another major scam — the biogate or the bio-scam — which if evaluated and probed would run into thousands of crores.
The bio-scam is linked to the poor implementation of the Biological Diversity Act of 2002 which lays special emphasis on access benefit sharing (ABS). As a result, thousands of crore of rupees that should have been collected from individuals and companies for commercial utilisation of bio-resources each year over the last 10 year period have neither been collected nor utilised or channelised to enable the stakeholders to meet the goal of protection and conservation of biodiversity.
The Biodiversity Act, 2002, primarily addresses issues of conservation, sustainable use of biological resources in the country, issues related to access to genetic resources and associated knowledge and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from utilisation of biological resources. At the national level, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is mandated to regulate use of India’s biological resources and provide advice to Central and state governments on issues of conservation, sustainable use and access and benefit sharing. The NBA website clearly states under FAQ (frequently asked questions) that there is no overlap in the functions of NBA and state biodiversity boards (SBBs) on issues of ABS. The NBA says all matters relating to requests by foreign individuals, companies or institutions and all matters relating to transfer of results of research to any foreigner, approvals for intellectual property protection where biological resources and associated knowledge are involved will be dealt with by NBA. Whereas all matters relating to access by Indians for commercial purposes will be under the purview of the concerned State Biodiversity Boards. The NBA has also rightly emphasised that the benefit sharing guidelines are to be issued by the NBA.
When probed why the SBBs across the country have been dragging their feet and have not come forward to regulate companies commercially utilising bio-resources, informed sources told this newspaper that this is because the NBA has issued guidelines for ABS but the gazette notification has not been issued by the government of India. On being contacted, Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board secretary Ram Gopal Soni said that on the basis of the NBA guidelines they took the lead and started issuing notices to concerned companies under Section 7 of the Biological Diversity Act to regulate commercial utilisation of bio-resources. He also informed that a number of companies have gone to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) challenging the notices served on them.
On closely following the cases that have come up for hearing at NGT, it was gathered that the NBA has given false information to the NGT by stating that it only has the mandate under sections 3 and 4 of the Biological Diversity Act to regulate the foreign companies.