UPSC foundations · Note 242
The Biological Diversity Act, 2002, and its 2023 amendment
Study context: GS III — Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment (biodiversity conservation).
India's Biological Diversity Act, 2002, gives domestic legal form to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which India signed at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Act has three linked aims: conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge. It received the President's assent on 5 February 2003, with its access and benefit-sharing provisions coming into force on 1 July 2004.
The Act creates a three-tier structure. The National Biodiversity Authority, based in Chennai, works at the national level. State Biodiversity Boards and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils work at state level. At the local level, Biodiversity Management Committees document local diversity and associated knowledge in People's Biodiversity Registers. Foreign users and certain others need the Authority's approval before obtaining biological resources or associated knowledge, while Indian users follow a lighter route in many cases.
The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023, assent on 3 August 2023 and in force from 1 April 2024, aimed to simplify compliance, encourage research and the traditional-medicine sector, and align the law with the Nagoya Protocol on access and benefit-sharing. Among its changes, approval for intellectual property applications was in general moved to before the grant of the right rather than before filing, and many offences were decriminalised in favour of monetary penalties.
Critics and supporters read the amendment differently. Supporters argue that simpler rules encourage research, cultivation of medicinal plants and benefit-sharing in practice. Critics worry that easing rules, including exemptions for codified traditional knowledge and for certain users, could weaken community control and benefit-sharing. The debate is a useful reminder that a law's text, its rules — new Biological Diversity Rules followed in 2024 — and its enforcement on the ground must all be checked together.
Key takeaways
- The 2002 Act links conservation, sustainable use and fair benefit-sharing.
- It works through the National Biodiversity Authority, state boards and local committees.
- The 2023 amendment simplified compliance and moved several approvals later in the process.
Why it matters for civil studies
The Act is the main test of how India balances research and commerce against community rights over genetic resources and traditional knowledge.
Think it through
Does simplifying access to biological resources help or hinder fair sharing of benefits with the communities that conserved them?
From the Public Notes companion study collection. Editorial context and corrections.