Sub-headline: The latest ₹5.68 crore disbursement under the Access and Benefit-Sharing mechanism takes the NBA’s total ABS payouts to over ₹191 crore. Gujarat received the highest allocation among states and UTs.
Highlights:
- NBA disbursed ₹5.68 crore under the ABS mechanism
- Total ABS disbursements have now crossed ₹191 crore
- ₹3.51 crore linked to 139 varieties and 28 hybrids of okra
- Gujarat received the highest allocation of ₹88.79 lakh
- West Bengal received ₹78.09 lakh and Madhya Pradesh ₹64.90 lakh
- Funds will support biodiversity conservation, research and livelihoods
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has disbursed ₹5.68 crore under the Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) mechanism to support biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of biological resources across India.
With the latest release, the total ABS funds disbursed by the authority have crossed ₹191 crore.
The funds have been distributed among State Biodiversity Boards, Union Territory Biodiversity Councils and a national research institution. A major portion of the disbursement is linked to biological resources such as okra, watermelon and cucumber, along with specified microbial and agricultural biological resources.
The largest component is ₹3.51 crore related to okra, covering 139 varieties and 28 hybrids. This amount has been released to 32 SBBs and UTBCs from ABS funds received from Nunhems India Pvt. Ltd. for accessing okra resources.
Other components are associated with watermelon, covering 662 varieties and 15 hybrids, and cucumber, covering 1,009 varieties and 14 hybrids. Companies including Nunhems India, East West Seeds India and Bayer Science and Innovation accessed these resources through markets and traders.
Among states and Union Territories, Gujarat received the highest allocation at ₹88.79 lakh. It was followed by West Bengal at ₹78.09 lakh, Madhya Pradesh at ₹64.90 lakh, Odisha at ₹59.02 lakh and Bihar at ₹45.60 lakh.
Since the biological resources were accessed through markets and traders, they could not be traced to specific farmers, communities or a single geographical source. The beneficiary share was therefore distributed among states and UTs where the relevant biological resources are cultivated.
The NBA also released ABS funds to CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory’s National Culture of Industrial Microorganisms in Pune from an amount received from Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
The funds provided to SBBs and UTBCs can be used for updating People’s Biodiversity Registers, restoring degraded ecosystems, conserving biological resources and wild relatives of cultivated plants, strengthening Biodiversity Heritage Sites and building biodiversity databases.
They will also support research, capacity building and community-oriented livelihood initiatives. Funds provided to the research institution will support biological resource repositories, bio-surveys, taxonomy capacity building and in-situ and ex-situ conservation.
