About a dozen Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) belonging to Indra Karan, Cheryal, Kasipur and Julkal gram panchatyats in Sangareddy mandal of Medak district, Yalaworthy and Kozzaguda gram panchayats, Shankarpally and Ramanthapur municipalities of Rangareddy district, Mekavanampally gram panchayat of Sadasivapet in Vikarabad district, Kadakverugu and Cheryal mandals of Siddipet district, and Janagam municipality of Warangal distrct received ₹9,500 each under benefit sharing component from five firms for accessing biological resources for research purposes.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC ) too had received the highest amount of ₹ 7.72 lakh from the firms, including Biotech Laboratories India Ltd. Hyderabad, DCM Shriram Ltd, India, Bharat Biotech International Ltd, Laurus Labs Limited and L’Oreal SA for accessing the biological resources from the particular region.
The cheques were handed over by Telangana State Biodiversity Board (TSBDB) secretary Kalicharan S. Khartade during a meeting held for distribution of benefit share amount to the BMCs received from the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), said an official spokesperson on Thursday.
The secretary advised the representatives of the areas to utilize the amount towards conservation and promotion of biological resources and other socio-economic activities. NBA and SBBs are the agencies responsible for implementing the provisions of the Biodiversity Act with the main objectives of conservation, sustainable use and equitable benefit sharing of bio-resources.
The mandate is also for equitable sharing benefits arising out of utilization of biological resources with the local communities for livelihood improvement and also for conservation and sustainable management of biological resources. Users of the country’s biological resources need to get prior approvals of NBA or SBBs for carrying out activities like research and commercial utilization of biological resources by sectors like ‘AYUSH’, seeds, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, nutraceuticals and biotechnology.
The benefit sharing component payable by the users for commercial utilization of biological resources ranges from 0.1% to 0.5% at the graded percentage of the annual gross ex-factory sale of the products minus government taxes, she added, in a press release.