The National Biodiversity Authority will take a final call on filing bio-piracy criminal case against US biotech giant Monsanto and Indian partner Mahyco within the next two to three months on the BT brinjal issue.

The country’s biodiversity regulatory authority has received all documents pertaining to the case and is in the advanced stage of taking a final legal opinion.

The developers of BT brinjal have been accused of using local brinjal varieties without taking necessary approvals, which was in violation of the Indian Biodiversities Act.

“It has been brought to our attention that the companies had used our local brinjal varieties to develop BT brinjal. As per the Act, it is a criminal case and a cognizable offence,” P. Balakrishna, Chairman of the authority, told Business Line on the sidelines of the United Nations conference on biological diversity.

It has taken nearly two years for the regulatory authority to investigate India’s first bio-piracy case involving accessing local germ plasma for transformation without getting required approvals.

Balakrishna said the authority encourages using India’s biological resources but within the framework of laws. “Our intention is not to chase people but to create awareness that they are doing wrong,” he explained.

The authority is in the process of strengthening the different State-level biodiversity authorities through funding, capacity building and awareness programmes. Twenty-six States have their respective biodiversity authorities in place.

The authority is also in the process of revising the notified list of endangered species. “Fourteen States have notified the revised list of endangered species and other States are in the advanced stage,” he said.

amitmitra@thehindu.co.in

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