ORDER

1. The issue for consideration is the remedial action for non- compliance of provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Biological Diversity Rules, 2004, including constitution of Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) as per Section 41 of the Act and maintaining Peoples Bio Diversity Registers (PBRs) as required under Rule 22(6).

2. The Act was enacted to provide for conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto with a view to give effect to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which came into force on 29.12.1993. The Act seeks to regulate access to biological resources and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of utilization of biological resources by constituting National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) to advice the Central Government and the State Governments on steps towards conservation of biodiversity, sustainable use of its components, equitable sharing of benefits and allied issues. The Act also contains provision for establishment of State Biodiversity Boards to advice the State Government on the subject. The Central Government has to develop national strategies, plans and programmes for conservation and promotion and sustainable use of biodiversity. At local level, every local body has to constitute BMCs. The Rules based on CBD provide that the BMC is to prepare PBRs containing comprehensive information on availability and knowledge of local biological resources, their medicinal or any other use and Traditional Knowledge (TK) associated with them.

3. This Tribunal issued notices to all the States and Union Territories, Boards and Authorities. The matter has been considered on several dates in the last four years. It is not necessary to refer to all the proceedings. Some State Boards have filed their respective affidavits mentioning the steps taken for enforcement of the Act and the Rules.

4. Vide order dated 12.04.2019, noticing huge gap in constitution of BMCs and preparation of PBRs, this Tribunal directed the said steps to be completed within three months and a report filed by MoEF&CC. The States which remained non-compliant were asked to furnish their explanation.

5. The matter was thereafter considered on 09.08.2019 in the light of the report of MoEF&CC dated 02.08.2019. The Tribunal observed:- (cid:147) 5. A report dated 02.08.2019 has been filed by the MoEF&CC to the effect that the Principal Secretaries of Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Departments were asked to expedite the setting up of the BMCs and three regional meetings were held with all the States and the State Biodiversity Boards. The statistics show that as against the need to constitute 317519 BMCs, 155838 BMCs have been constituted and 6868 PBRs have been documented, while 1692 PBRs are still in progress. The BMCs constituted are about 50%. The number of PBRs appears to be less than the PBRs reported earlier.

6. Having regard to the laudable objective to meet the necessity of conservation of biological diversity, delay of more than 16 years in complying with the mandate of law is a matter of serious concern.

7. We regretfully note that the matter on PBR progress noted is (cid:145)zero(cid:146) in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. On the subject of BMC, there is zero progress in Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir.

8. This inadequate progress is in spite of repeated directions of this Tribunal. We asked all the learned counsel appearing in the matter to suggest a reasonable mechanism for ensuring compliance of law with a penal consequence for any further defaults.

9. India is one of the recognized mega-diverse countries of the world, harbouring nearly 7-8% of the recorded species of the world, and representing 4 of the 34 globally