Setting aside objections of the soya oil extraction companies, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) maintains that the companies are bound by the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act 2002.
According to the provisions of the Act, it is mandatory for all the soya bean oil extracting companies to register themselves with their State Biodiversity Boards and share two per cent of their income for environmental protection.
The NBA clarification came after soya oil extraction companies in the state failed to comply with the Act on the plea that soya oil extraction was not a commercial activity under the Bio-Diversity Act.
The decision will have a direct bearing on the income of companies involved in the soya oil extraction in the state.
Madhya Pradesh is the top soya bean producing state in the country.
Even after a decade of enactment of the law, no company in the state had complied with the provisions of the Act.
But now, the state body has taken serious view of the non-compliance of the Act and served notices to such companies one by one.
As part of this process it served notice on Ruchi Soya Limited, one of the renowned soya oil manufactures in the state.
The firm moved the Bhopal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) questioning the legal right of the State Biodiversity Board on the plea that soya oil extraction was not a commercial activity under the Act.
Subsequently, the National Biodiversity Authority met to decide on the legal question and ruled that soya oil extraction was a commercial activity putting to rest all such confusions.
The matter was also reported to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) which also accepted the Board’s ruling.
“It was already in the law but not as explicit as it is now”, said an official of the State Biodiversity Board.
“Now we are going to accelerate the process to ensure its compliance”, Ram Gopal Sony an official with the State Biodiversity Board said.
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