Calcutta Telegraph
written by G.S. Mudur
Saturday August 13, 2011
Government agencies have helped a crop biotechnology company involved in genetic engineering of brinjal in its alleged violation of a 2005 law that regulates access to India’s biodiversity, a state biodiversity official and environmental groups have said.
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), the apex guardian of biodiversity, announced this week that it plans to “proceed legally” against Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company (Mahyco), for accessing Indian brinjal varieties for genetic modification without prior approval of “competent authorities”.
Under the Biological Diversity Act, any individual or company with foreign collaboration needs approval from the NBA to access plants, animals or microbes for research.
The law seeks to conserve biodiversity and ensure there is fair and equitable sharing of any benefits that might spring from the research on the local genetic resources. The goal is to ensure that economic benefits, if any, filter down to local communities.
Environmental groups have alleged that the law has been violated in the brinjal case because Monsanto holds a stake in Mahyco, and the genetic modification technology used in the brinjal varieties comes from Monsanto.
Mahyco has said that it has not violated any of the provisions of the law and the company had only introduced the relevant gene into local varieties provided by the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS), Dharwad, a government institution.
A note from NBA secretary C. Achalender Reddy written in April this year says “the research project seems prima facie (to) fall outside the scope of guidelines issued by the Central Government. The NBA has not received any application from any of the parties”.
A state biodiversity board official said that the case is likely to become complicated because multiple government agencies have inked their consent to the project without taking into account the requirement for NBA approval.
The brinjal modification project was independently approved by a review committee of the Union department of biotechnology as well as by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee under the Union environment ministry among other arms of the central and state governments.
“Why did they entertain the application without approval from the NBA?” said Kishan Singh Sugara, a forest officer and member secretary of the Karnataka Biodiversity Board which has also investigated the affair.
He said the officials who were members of the committees were expected to know the laws of the land.
“When giving technical clearances, they should have informed the applicants to obtain prior permission from the NBA.”
Bangalore-based non-government Environment Support Group (ESG) had last year approached the state board to examine biodiversity issues involving the genetically modified brinjal.
“We think officials choosing to ignore the law is tantamount to collusion,” said ESG co-ordinator Leo Saldanha.
Mahyco officials were not available for comment.
But UAS Dharwad director of research P.M. Salimath said the brinjal varieties used in the project have been with the varsity for decades and all research in the university was for public good.
The brinjals were modified to secrete a chemical toxic to a major insect pest. The modified brinjals are expected to benefit farmers through increased productivity. Despite successful field trials, India’s environment ministry has not yet released the modified brinjals for commercial cultivation.
“It is our understanding that there is a government order which says that the biodiversity act does not apply to crops such as brinjal,” Salimath said. But Sugara points out that technical clearances or even a government order cannot supersede the law. “The law is above all,” Sugara said.
No comments:
Post a Comment