The West Bengal environment department has issued notices to all manufacturers and traders involved in commercial exploitation of natural resources, asking them to register with the state biodiversity board and share benefits with it or face penal actions, officials said. Penal actions include imprisonment and fine.
In an attempt to ensure compliance, the West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) has decided that it would give its consent to operate to entities involved in commercial exploitation of natural resources only if they register with the biodiversity board, said WBPCB chairman Kalyan Rudra.
According to the board, 24 manufacturers and traders have registered with it out of more than 400 that are required to do so. Only a handful of them have shared benefits — a certain percentage of the turnover — with the board.
“According to the provisions of the ‘access and benefit’ sharing, under the biodiversity act 2002, the manufacturers and traders of biological resource-based drugs, industrial enzymes, food flavours, fragrance, cosmetics, colours etc, have to be mandatorily registered with the biodiversity board and share benefits. Unfortunately, despite repeated communications, most have not complied,” state environment minister Manas Bhuiya said on Wednesday.
“If they continue to evade the mandatory provision, we will soon take action under the act,” the minister said. “The act has strict provisions, including a fine ranging from Rs 1-5 lakhs and/or imprisonment up to 3 years… to whoever contravenes,” warns the notice issued by the board.
H.S. Debnath, chairman of the state biodiversity board, said guidelines issued by the Union environment, forest and climate change ministry state that commercial organisations had to pay the board 0.1 to 0.5 per cent of their annual turnover. “95 per cent of the money is to be spent on community development in the area from where natural resources have been collected. We have so far received a meagre amount,” he said.