Biodiversity: K'taka HC for stir against US

A Division Bench of High Court of Karnataka headed by Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen said on Tuesday that dharnas must be organised against the United States of America for its ‘continued intransigence in complying with global biodiversity norms.’

“This might perhaps be the best solution to the problems of global biodiversity conservation,” the Division Bench noted during the hearing of a public interest litigation filed by the Environment Support Group (ESG) alleging large-scale violation of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, various related laws and the convention on Biological Diversity, 1992.

The counsel appearing for the ESG stated that a number of US companies were largely responsible for the continued damage to biodiversity across the world.

“There is a growing worldwide effort to ensure that the US does indeed start complying with global biodiversity norms, and the government, rather than proactively protecting biodiversity from marauding by such corporations, has failed in discharging its duties,” said the counsel.

The petition said there had been a colossal failure on the part of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and National Biodiversity Authority in protecting the country’s biodiversity as per the independent conclusions of the CAG and the Parliamentary committees