‘Share benefits arising out of the use of bioresources’

KOLKATA: West Bengal Biodiversity Board (WBBB) has issued notices to all manufacturers and traders involved in utilising bio-resources, asking them to take permission from the Board and share benefits with it or face legal action.

“The manufacturers of biological resource-based drugs, industrial enzymes, food flavours, fragrances and beauty products cosmetics etc will have to share benefits arising out of uses of such products and they cannot act independently, as per provisions of the Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS), under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. There are legal provisions for imprisonment and a hefty fine or both if there is a violation," state Environment minister Manas Bhunia said.

Himadri Sekhar Debnath, Chairman of WBBB said that letters have already been issued to 250 pharmaceutical traders out of 400 and only 24 have responded so far. The state government has also asked the state medicinal plants board, various departments and local bodies in rural and urban areas to furnish details of such firms.

Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change state that commercial organizations had to pay 0.1 to 0.5 per cent of their annual turnover to

the Board.

The State Environment department in winter will start planting plants from Jhargram to Birbhum along the inter-state border from June for mitigating fine air-borne pollutants from crossing over to West Bengal from states like Jharkhand, especially during winter.

The trees that will be planted include karabi, akondo, bakul, chhatim, nim , palash to name a few.According to a study by the State Pollution Control Board in association with IIT Delhi, 53 per cent of the state’s pollution is caused by transboundary pollution.The State government is planning to hold a regional meeting with some neighbouring states and countries in Kolkata sometime in the middle of this year for preparing a strategy for an inter-state approach to curb transboundary pollution.