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Herbal units in MP comply with notices under Biological Diversity Act
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Shardul Nautiyal, Mumbai
October 28 , 2014
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All the 100 herbal companies have complied with the notices issued by
Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board (MPSBB) on benefit sharing under
Section 7 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
The said
section under the Act stipulates intimating MPSBB in a prescribed format
on the plant-based raw material sourced or acquired by the manufacturer
along with a prescribed fee of Rs.5000.
According
to the Act, organisations extracting plant-based material for
commercial purpose without intimation to the state biodiversity board
are liable under Section 55 (2) of the Act and shall be punishable with
imprisonment which may extend up to three years with fine or five years
with fine or both.
As per the notice, all organisations,
departments, undertakings, private companies are hereby intimated that
if they are using bio-resource for commercial purpose they shall under
Biological Diversity Act, 2002 apply in prescribed Form 1 to Member
Secretary, Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board with immediate
effect. Online application in Form 1 is available at www.mpsbb.info.
The
notice served states that it is required to share benefit among
concerned Biodiversity Management Committees attached with the local
self government of the state under direction from the state board.
As
per section (7) of Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Rule 17(1) of MP
Biological Diversity Rules, any person who is a citizen of India or a
body corporate, association or organisation which is registered in India
shall obtain any biological resource from Madhya Pradesh for research
or commercial utilisation only after prior intimation to Madhya Pradesh
State Biodiversity Board in Form – 1 (Application form for commercial
use and associated traditional knowledge/access to biological
resources/collecting of biological resources).
These
organisations using bio-resources for commercial use shall under section
23 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 sign MoU with Board for
sharing of benefits arising out of such use. If such access is for
research purpose a fee of Rs 100 and for commercial utilisation fee of Rs.1000 shall be payable in the form of a cheque or demand draft payable to Member Secretary, MP State Biodiversity Board.
This
move comes in the wake of National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) through
its state biodiversity boards set up in different states started
issuing notices to the manufacturers not registered with them, directing
them to do so at the earliest.
The notice states the
manufacturer is required to furnish information like name and address of
the company, name of panchayat or nagar palika from where raw material
has been acquired, name and quantity of biological resources used
annually, area and annual production (year wise) and annual gross turn
over (gross revenue).
As per the Act, manufacturer has the
responsibility to share details of the source from where the raw
material has been procured and also share 2 per cent of the revenue
generated out of the production to further the cause of biodiversity
conservation and its sustainable use.
Under Section 56 of the
Act, it is stated that if any person contravenes any direction given or
order made by the Central Government, the State Government, the National
Biodiversity Act or the State Biodiversity Board for which no
punishment has been separately provided under this act, he shall be
punished with a fine which may extend to one lakh rupees and in case of a
second or subsequent offence, with fine which may extend to two lakh
rupees and in case of continuous contravention with additional fine
which may extend to two lakh rupees everyday during which the default
continues.
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TOPICS
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That foods might provide therapeutic benefits is clearly not a new concept. ...
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