In January 2019, the ministries of AYUSH and environment and forests held a meeting with AYUSH industry reps. Result? A ‘direction’ to review the Biodiversity Act, exempting the industry from paying tribals for accessing their resources, aka access and benefit sharing (ABS).

The meeting had come close on the heels of a landmark judgement of Uttarakhand High Court holding yoga businessman Ramdev’s Divya Pharmacies accountable for extracting the resources for commercial utilisation without paying the ABS and assent of State Biodiversity Boards.

The industry labelled ABS, a mechanism brought into international trade by the efforts of developing countries like India, as burdensome and a tool of harassment. National & State Biodiversity Boards and Tribal Affairs Ministry vehemently opposed, but the law was amended!

The amendment inserted in the exemption clause of ABS broad terms like ‘AYUSH practitioners and traditional knowledge holders’. Experts fear this has the potential of exempting the whole of AYUSH industries from paying for the natural resources they use unabatedly.

The ABS amount, mandated by law, varies from 0.1 to 0.5 % of the gross sale made by the companies. Financial statements of some of the multi crore AYUSH industries show this amount, meant for tribal welfare and resources conservation, could have been in thousands of crores.

The controversial amendment threatens corporate accountability, community rights, and conservation efforts. Read full report by our Senior Research Fellow @Priyansha_C
for @frontline_india
https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/how-the-amended-biological-diversity-act-puts-profits-over-people/article67657862.ece?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=article_share…