‘Biodiversity lacks dedicated officials’

Often an additional charge for ministers, member-secretaries

The responsibilities under the purview of the State biodiversity boards being allotted as an additional charge to officers and public representatives is hampering the work that ought to be taken up by the boards in various States.

The chairperson of the National Biodiversity Authority B. Meena Kumari said, while interacting with media here on Monday.

The State boards have been constituted in all the 29 States as per the provisions of the Biodiversity Act, 2002, but majority of the chairperson and member-secretary posts do not have dedicated officials. Chairperson positions are some times given as additional charge to ministers and the member-secretaries are almost always given the Board responsibilities as additional charge.

In Telangana, Chief Secretary holds the chairperson portfolio as additional charge, while the member-secretaryship too is held as additional charge by a Forest official.

The Telangana State Biodiversity Board has successfully constituted biodiversity management committees (BMCs) at panchayat level, and got applications from about 40 private companies involved in manufacture of pharma and Ayurvedic products, the member-secretary of the board S. Srinivas has informed.

ABS agreement

As per the provisions of the Act, collection of genetic/bio resources for commercial production requires Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) agreements with the local BMCs. The companies will have to pay for accessing the resources, and also share from their profits earned through commercial use of such resources.

The ABS agreements have been penned so far with around 20 private companies, while 20 more are in the pipeline, Mr. Srinivas said.

Nationwide, so far 62,200 BMCs have been constituted, shared Dr. Meena Kumari.

Over 2,000 foreign companies have applied to the NBA seeking access to bio resources, but only about 752 ABS agreements have been effected so far. Applications have been doubling every year since 2013-14, and the trend is encouraging, the Secretary, NBA, T. Rabikumar said. The process involves prior informed consent and mutually agreeable terms, which delayed the agreements.

A study report by Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education pegged the number of species traded from India at about 900 to 1000, of which about 200 species are traded in bulk volumes translating into many hundreds of tonnes. In monetary terms, the value of these resources exported amounts to thousands of crores of rupees.

Recently, it may be recalled that the NBA has ordered a Brazilian company to pay ₹1.2 crore to access bovine cattle embryos of Ongole bull for research purposes. Commercial utilisation of the embryos, when it happens, will yield more share to the BMCs.