Mahyco defends action in Bt brinjal trials

Seed company, Mahyco has clarified it has not violated any provision of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, in its research to develop Bt Brinjal.

Recently, the National Biodiversity Authority of India (NBA) had recommended legal action against Mahyco and Monsanto for violating the biodiversity protection law in promoting Bt Brinjal. “Mahyco has not indulged in any activity which would be a violation of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002,” a company statement said.

In a resolution at its meeting on June 20, the NBA had decided to initiate legal action against Mahyco/Monsanto and their collaborators for using the local brinjal varities in developing Bt brinjal without a prior approval of the competent authorities, the Environment Support Group (ESG) said in a statement here, quoting from the resolution released on Thursday last in New Delhi.

The NBA decision was based on a complaint filed by ESG with the Karnataka Biodiversity Board on February 15, 2011.

"The state board investigated the matter and informed NBA on May 28 that six local varieties for developing Bt Brinjal were accessed in the state by the two companies without prior approval,” the statement said.

The board also recommended legal action against the University of Agricultural Sciences at Dharwad in north Karnataka, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore, and Sathguru Management Consultants Ltd, representing the consortium involving the United States Agency for International Development and US’ Cornell University for collaborating with the seed firms in violation of the Biological Diversity Act (section 4).

The Bangalore-based ESG accused the agencies of illegally accessing 10 varieties of brinjal in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu without the consent of the regulatory boards although it was mandatory to protect the loss of biodiversity from contamination when transgencis are involved.

In addition, the law mandates that when biodiversity is to be accessed in any manner for commercial, research and other uses, local communities who have protected local varieties and have been cultivating for generations must be consulted, and if they consent, benefits must accrue to them as per the internationally applicable ‘Access and Benefit Sharing Protocol’.

The environmental release of the first ever Genetically Modified Food (Bt Brinjal — eggplant) in India, promoted by Mahyco (an Indian subsidiary of US-based Monsanto), was stayed by a February 2011 moratorium decision on the product’s environmental and commercial release by the then Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh. This decision was the outcome of public opinion gathered in a series of nation-wide public consultations that he held and was also based on a variety of scientific evidence and legal analysis.