Volunteer groups seek check on bio-piracy

NEW DELHI, May 26: Piqued by the plundering of the country's biological wealth by some foreign agencies, volunteer organisations today soug...

NEW DELHI, May 26: Piqued by the plundering of the country’s biological wealth by some foreign agencies, volunteer organisations today sought President Shankar Dayal Sharma’s immediate intervention for enacting a law to check bio-piracy.

Stressing the need for establishing a `national biological resource authority,’ the organisations said outside agencies were making concerted efforts to monopolise the use and control of these resources taking advantage of the legal limbo relating to the ownership of the country’s rich biological resources.

By doing so, they were not only posing an economic threat but also jeopardising the livelihood of millions, they said.

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The two organisations – Gene Campaign and the Forum for Biotechnology and Food Security have drafted a model bill providing for establishment of sovereign rights over biological resources and submitted it to the President requesting him to exercise his extraordinary powers to promulgate an ordinance — to “save the country from economic impoverishment and subjugation.”

Unfortunately India does not even have a semblance of law to check the ongoing smuggling of biological resources from the country which some people are “taking away with impunity, stuffing them in suitcases,” they said. If the country continues to adopt an indifferent attitude towards “concerted efforts” by some vested interests to rob “our rural and tribal communities of their rights,” the country’s food security will be at a great risk, they said.

In this context, it was said that biotechnology would dominate more than 50 per cent of international trade in the coming ten years. Hence, preservation of plant species possessing medicinal and pharmaceutical value was the need of the hour.

It was also asserted that ownership rights of the people was the most appropriate way of regulating the research, collection, exploitation and use of biological and genetic resources.

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The draft act has been prepared on legal lines with reference to directive principles of State policy of the Indian Constitution that vests in the State the ultimate responsibility to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlife of the country.

The draft invokes various Articles of the Constitution such as Articles 51 (a) (g), 31 (a) (b) (c) to (f) and Articles 21 and 14 to establish a Constitutional mandate for inter-generation equity — the right of the child to equitably inherit environment and protection and utilisation of common resources for common good.

Besides this, India has already ratified the convention on biological diversity which, besides giving sovereign rights on their biological resources, makes the States responsible for conserving their biological diversity and using it in a sustainable manner.

The draft bill suggests penalties equivalent to a minimum of US $ 50,000 for even violating any agreement on biological and genetic material by a domestic or foreign agency.