G. Srinivasan
The Hindu
Karnataka’s biodiversity board comes in for flak as it shies away from initiating prosecution for bio-piracy
Even as the country is proposing to host the 11 Conference of Parties on the Convention on Biological Diversity at Hyderabad in October this year, the recent proceedings at the State Biodiversity Board (SBB) in Karnataka has raised the due hackles of all the stakeholders.
Prior to the shenanigans of a few state legislators including the State Minister of Environment Mr.Krishna Palemar watching porn clips in the Assembly came to the surface, the said Minister who resigned subsequently, took a decision in January that the Board would not initiate criminal prosecution against Messers Monsanto and Mahyco and others involved in bio-piracy while developing India’s first Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) food: Bt Brinjal.
This has come at a time when the Ministry of Environment and Forests (2010) clamped a moratorium on the commercial application of Bt Brinjal, following a barrage of criticism that it is unsafe for human consumption when field trails and solid science evidence were not satisfactory.
Read More: Double speak on diversity
Cartoon by Bob Moran
