Bill On Biodiversity Protection In Winter Session

Information service planned to document natural resources in the country

Indian and multinational companies will be subject to tougher norms for exploitation of plant and animal genetic wealth in India following a legislation on protection of the countrys biodiversity which is to be introduced during the winter session of Parliament.

The legislation, prompted by environmentalists, is intended to check theunhindered exploitation of the countrys biological reserves. It will also indicate Indias place in international conventions and treaties such as the Biodiversity Convention, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)s International Undertaking of Plant Genetic Resources and the Leipzig Global Plan.

Through the legislation, Indian scientists and environmentalists hope to get the government to lay clear guidelines for the commercial exploitation of Indias huge biodiversity resource.

 

Besides plants, environmentalists also want other genetic resources like micro-organisms to be covered in the legislation.

One of the key provisions of the legislation will be a biodiversity information service to document the natural resources in the country.

This has been a long-standing demand of the scientists on which little work has been done so far.

The bills passage is expected to pump in funds for concrete work on protection of biodiversity in the country.

The legislation would also provide for the setting up of a bank for microorganisms and genetic resources. Such a bank would be useful when India finally accepts the provisions of the Trade Related Intellectual Rights (TRIPs) agreement.

Under TRIPs, applicants wanting to patent genetic resources should register them with an internationally recognised resource centre. An Indian centre with world-class preservation facilities could save Indian scientists a lot of money pending the acceptance of their patent application.

The biodiversity protection law, coming ahead of the much delayed patents legislation, will require it to be in agreement with protecting Indian biodiversity even while allowing product patents for foreign companies.

Sources said the biodiversity law is a means of ensuring that domestic plant and animal resources do not end up as raw material for foreign drug and other companies when India has to finally accept the product patents regime by 2005.