Lok Sabha passes bill on biodiversity amid din

The bill was introduced in Parliament on December 16, 2021 by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Amidst a din, the Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed the Biological Diversity (Amendment) bill which would encourage foreign investment in harnessing India’s rich biodiversity while ensuring that the local communities get a “fair and equitable share” of the benefits accrued from the commercial use of such resources.

The bill seeks to attract more foreign investments in the chain of biological resources including research, patent and commercial utilization without compromising the national interest, while decriminalising the offences in line with the Centre’s current position on green laws. The offences are punishable with a penalty, which is between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50 lakh, and in case of continuing contravention, there may be an additional penalty of up to Rs 1 crore.

The bill was introduced in Parliament in December 2021 but was moved to a joint committee due to concerns that the amendments favoured industry and contradicted the spirit of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

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The panel headed by BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal had submitted its report in August 2022 with certain recommendations that the Union Environment Ministry took into account while placing the bill in the House for consideration and passing.

Government sources said the amended bill had provisions to encourage the Indian medicine system and would attract foreign investments in AYUSH Drug industry and popularise the medicines used in the Indian systems of treatment, opening up windows to earn more foreign exchange.

A distinction has also been brought out between the wild and cultivated medicinal plants wherein exemption has been given to cultivated medicinal plants from the purview of access and benefit sharing mechanism subject to obtaining the certificate of origin.

This would in turn reduce the pressure on wild medicinal plants thereby improving the availability of a substantial number of threatened and endangered medicinal plants.