All the 100 herbal companies have complied with the notices issued by Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board (MPSBB) on benefit sharing under Section 7 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

The said section under the Act stipulates intimating MPSBB in a prescribed format on the plant-based raw material sourced or acquired by the manufacturer along with a prescribed fee of Rs.5000.

According to the Act, organisations extracting plant-based material for commercial purpose without intimation to the state biodiversity board are liable under Section 55 (2) of the Act and shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend up to three years with fine or five years with fine or both.

As per the notice, all organisations, departments, undertakings, private companies are hereby intimated that if they are using bio-resource for commercial purpose they shall under Biological Diversity Act, 2002 apply in prescribed Form 1 to Member Secretary, Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board with immediate effect. Online application in Form 1 is available at www.mpsbb.info.

The notice served states that it is required to share benefit among concerned Biodiversity Management Committees attached with the local self government of the state under direction from the state board.

As per section (7) of Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and Rule 17(1) of MP Biological Diversity Rules, any person who is a citizen of India or a body corporate, association or organisation which is registered in India shall obtain any biological resource from Madhya Pradesh for research or commercial utilisation only after prior intimation to Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board in Form – 1 (Application form for commercial use and associated traditional knowledge/access to biological resources/collecting of biological resources).

These organisations using bio-resources for commercial use shall under section 23 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 sign MoU with Board for sharing of benefits arising out of such use. If such access is for research purpose a fee of Rs 100 and for commercial utilisation fee of Rs.1000 shall be payable in the form of a cheque or demand draft payable to Member Secretary, MP State Biodiversity Board.

This move comes in the wake of National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) through its state biodiversity boards set up in different states started issuing notices to the manufacturers not registered with them, directing them to do so at the earliest.

The notice states the manufacturer is required to furnish information like name and address of the company, name of panchayat or nagar palika from where raw material has been acquired, name and quantity of biological resources used annually, area and annual production (year wise) and annual gross turn over (gross revenue).

As per the Act, manufacturer has the responsibility to share details of the source from where the raw material has been procured and also share 2 per cent of the revenue generated out of the production to further the cause of biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use.

Under Section 56 of the Act, it is stated that if any person contravenes any direction given or order made by the Central Government, the State Government, the National Biodiversity Act or the State Biodiversity Board for which no punishment has been separately provided under this act, he shall be punished with a fine which may extend to one lakh rupees and in case of a second or subsequent offence, with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees and in case of continuous contravention with additional fine which may extend to two lakh rupees everyday during which the default continues.