JOIN USStage set for biopiracy case as SC restores 2012 case
The Supreme Court’s recent move to restore in the Karnataka High Court a case against Mahyco has set the stage for the crucial issue of biopiracy at a time the number of crops that have been stripped of protection from piracy has gone up from 190 to 421 over the 10 years since the case was filed.
The Bt brinjal seed was developed under a public private partnership between University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, Tamil Nadu UAS and Mahyco. The Environment Support Group (ESG) moved the Karnataka High Court in 2012, stating that the seed was developed by illegally accessing indigenous varieties of brinjal. The ESG petition included a report by the Karnataka Biodiversity Board that found that the UAS Dharwad “has used six local varieties for development of Bt Brinjal without prior approval from state biodiversity board or National Biodiversity Authority (NBA)”.
The petition further questioned Section 40 of the Biodiversity Act which was invoked by the Union government to remove protection for 190 plants. Worryingly, 15 of those plants were classified as threatened or critically endangered. The ESG argued that stripping of protection, provided under Section 3 of the Act, will threaten the very existence of plants.
The high court, after initial hearing, transferred the case to the National Green Tribunal. The ESG challenged the move in Supreme Court contending that the tribunal has no power to look into petitions challenging the constitutional validity.
The Supreme Court has now remitted the matter back to the high court, stating that the petition be decided on merits. However, since the time of filing the case, much harm has been done to biodiversity of the country.
“Of the 15 plants that were endangered, two have reached close to extinction during the pendency of this case. Meanwhile, the Central government has removed protection for more plants with the number reaching
421 in 2017. There is a need for a nationwide auditing of bio resources to understand the damage caused by such laxity,” Leo Saldanha of the ESG said.
Noting that bio resources have come under pressure
for various reasons, he said the NBA’s failure to protect them in the face of alarming reports over climate change was appalling.
A crucial segment of the 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity is set to begin in Montreal, Canada on December 7. Conservation of biodiversity and equitable sharing of its benefits are among the agenda.