On 13 June 2026, the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) reconstituted its Expert Committee on Agrobiodiversity under Section 13(1) of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, for one year, to advise on the conservation, sustainable use and access and benefit-sharing (ABS) of agricultural biodiversity. Padma Shri Dr. P. L. Gautam — eminent agricultural scientist and former Chair of both the NBA and the PPV&FR Authority — was appointed Chair, with the PPV&FRA Chairperson as Co-Chair.
It reads like routine administration, but it opens up one of the CDS environment section's most reliable clusters: India's biodiversity governance architecture.
The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 — The Framework
India enacted the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 to give effect to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), 1992 (adopted at the Rio Earth Summit). Its three core objectives mirror the CBD: 1. Conservation of biological diversity, 2. Sustainable use of its components, and 3. Fair and equitable sharing of benefits (ABS) arising from the use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge.
The Act created a three-tier structure — a favourite exam point:
| Tier | Body | Level |
|---|---|---|
| National | National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) | Chennai (statutory body, est. 2003) |
| State | State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) | Each state |
| Local | Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) | Every local body (panchayat/municipality) |
The BMCs maintain People's Biodiversity Registers (PBRs) documenting local biological resources and traditional knowledge — the grassroots layer.
Two refinements worth carrying into the exam. First, the NBA is a statutory and autonomous body under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), headquartered in Chennai, established in 2003. Second, the Act was significantly amended by the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act, 2023, which sought to encourage Indian system of medicine (AYUSH) practitioners and cultivators, ease compliance for codified traditional knowledge, decriminalise certain offences (converting them from criminal penalties to monetary fines), and fast-track patent applications — while still requiring benefit-sharing. The amendment exempts registered AYUSH practitioners and local cultivators of medicinal plants from prior intimation to State Biodiversity Boards, a change that drew both support (ease of doing business) and criticism (biopiracy concerns). Knowing the 2002 Act + 2023 Amendment pairing is now standard.
Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) — The Key Concept
ABS is the principle that those who access India's biological resources or traditional knowledge (e.g., a company using a medicinal plant) must share the benefits fairly with the communities and country that conserved them. The NBA regulates such access by foreign entities and approves ABS agreements. This implements the Nagoya Protocol (2010) on ABS — a supplementary agreement to the CBD that India has ratified.
The famous illustration examiners use: the Neem and Turmeric patent cases, where India successfully challenged foreign patents on traditional knowledge — the rationale behind documenting biodiversity (PBRs) and the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL). In the Turmeric (haldi) case (1997), India got the US Patent and Trademark Office to revoke a patent granted on turmeric's wound-healing properties by showing it was long-known prior art in India. The Neem case saw the European Patent Office revoke a patent on a neem-based fungicide. The Basmati rice patent dispute with a US firm (RiceTec) is a third example. These cases motivated the creation of the TKDL — a digital database (a collaboration of CSIR and the Ministry of AYUSH) that documents India's traditional knowledge in multiple languages so that patent examiners worldwide can find prior art and refuse wrongful patents.
The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-Sharing was adopted in 2010 at the CBD COP-10 in Nagoya, Japan, and entered into force in 2014; India is a party. It is the legal instrument that operationalises the CBD's third objective (fair and equitable benefit-sharing). Examiners also link this to the Cartagena Protocol (2000) on biosafety — governing the transboundary movement of living modified organisms (LMOs/GMOs) — the other major protocol under the CBD. Distinguishing Nagoya = ABS from Cartagena = biosafety is a frequent trap.
Agrobiodiversity and Why It Matters
Agrobiodiversity is the diversity of crops, livestock, and associated species used in agriculture — India's thousands of indigenous rice landraces, millets, pulses and livestock breeds. Conserving it underpins food security and climate resilience (diverse genes hedge against pests, drought and disease). It links to: - The PPV&FR Act, 2001 — protecting plant varieties and recognising farmers' rights over seeds they conserve and breed. - India's millets push (the International Year of Millets, 2023, was on India's initiative) — reviving climate-resilient indigenous grains. - Biodiversity hotspots in India worth knowing: the Himalaya, Western Ghats–Sri Lanka, Indo-Burma, and Sundaland (Nicobar).
Deepen the ecology side at Geography: Biodiversity and Environment and the institutions at Polity: Statutory Bodies.
The PPV&FR Act, 2001 — Farmers' Rights in Detail
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights (PPV&FR) Act, 2001 is the law most closely linked to agrobiodiversity, and India is notable for being among the few countries to enshrine farmers' rights alongside breeders' rights. It was enacted to comply with the WTO TRIPS Agreement (which requires plant-variety protection either by patents or by an effective sui generis system) while protecting India's smallholders. The PPV&FR Authority, headquartered in New Delhi, registers new, extant and farmers' varieties.
The Act's distinctive feature is its recognition that a farmer is simultaneously a cultivator, a conserver and a breeder. A farmer may save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share or sell farm produce including seed of a protected variety — the one thing he cannot do is sell branded seed of a protected variety. The Act also created a National Gene Fund and Plant Genome Saviour awards to reward communities and farmers who conserve genetic resources. This contrasts sharply with the more breeder-centric UPOV Convention model followed by many developed countries, making the Indian sui generis system a favourite comparison question.
Why Agrobiodiversity Is Strategic — Millets, Landraces and Climate
India is one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries and a Vavilov centre of crop origin for crops such as rice, several pulses and spices. Its agrobiodiversity — thousands of rice landraces, indigenous millets (jowar, bajra, ragi, kodo, kutki), pulses and animal breeds — is a living insurance policy against climate shocks, because genetic diversity is what lets agriculture adapt to new pests, diseases and weather extremes. The International Year of Millets, 2023 (declared by the UN on India's proposal, with millets rebranded as "Shree Anna") is the headline example of mainstreaming a climate-resilient, nutrient-dense indigenous crop. Conserving in-situ landraces (on farms) and ex-situ collections (in gene banks such as the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, NBPGR) is therefore both a food-security and a national-resilience priority — which is why the NBA's agrobiodiversity committee, though administratively routine, sits at the heart of a much larger strategic story.
🎯 Practice MCQs
Q1. The National Biodiversity Authority was set up under which Act, and is headquartered where? (a) Environment Protection Act, 1986; Delhi (b) Biological Diversity Act, 2002; Chennai (c) Wildlife Protection Act, 1972; Dehradun (d) Forest Conservation Act; Bhopal → (b).
Q2. The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 gives effect to which international convention? (a) Ramsar Convention (b) CITES (c) Convention on Biological Diversity (1992) (d) UNFCCC → (c).
Q3. Under the BD Act, which is the local-level body? (a) State Biodiversity Board (b) Biodiversity Management Committee (c) NBA (d) Gram Sabha → (b) — BMCs maintain People's Biodiversity Registers.
Q4. "ABS" in biodiversity governance stands for: (a) Annual Biodiversity Survey (b) Access and Benefit Sharing (c) Agro-Biological Standards (d) Authority for Biological Security → (b) — implementing the Nagoya Protocol (2010).
Q5. Which law specifically recognises farmers' rights over seeds they conserve and breed? (a) Seeds Act, 1966 (b) PPV&FR Act, 2001 (c) Essential Commodities Act (d) Patents Act → (b).
Q6. The Nagoya Protocol (2010) deals with _, while the Cartagena Protocol (2000) deals with _. (a) biosafety; access-benefit sharing (b) access-benefit sharing; biosafety of LMOs (c) climate; trade (d) wetlands; forests → (b) — both are protocols under the CBD.
Q7. In the famous Turmeric patent case (1990s), India succeeded in getting the patent: (a) extended (b) revoked by the US Patent Office as it was prior art (c) transferred to India (d) sold for royalties → (b) — this motivated the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL).
Q8. Millets, promoted under the International Year of Millets (2023), have been officially rebranded in India as: (a) Anna Bhagya (b) Shree Anna (c) Poshan Anna (d) Jan Anna → (b) — the UN declared 2023 the International Year of Millets on India's proposal.
📋 How this gets asked (PYQ pattern)
CDS environment GK reliably tests the three-tier BD Act structure (NBA–SBB–BMC), the CBD/Rio link, the ABS/Nagoya Protocol concept, and India's four biodiversity hotspots. The fresh hook is the NBA's Agrobiodiversity Committee reconstitution (2026). Pair with PPV&FR Act 2001 and the Neem/Turmeric patent examples. Recurring traps include distinguishing Nagoya (ABS) from Cartagena (biosafety), the 2002 Act vs 2023 Amendment (AYUSH exemptions, decriminalisation), "which body maintains the PBR" (BMC), and "where is the NBA headquartered" (Chennai). Expect the TRIPS-sui generis logic behind the PPV&FR Act, the megadiverse-country/Vavilov-centre tag for India, and Shree Anna/millets (2023) as a current-affairs link to agrobiodiversity. The CBD's three objectives (conserve, sustainable use, benefit-share) are a clean factual peg.
Biodiversity institutions are guaranteed CDS marks. Build the base with Polity: Statutory Bodies, track environment news at CDS/OTA Current Affairs, and prepare with Cavalier Defence Academy's upcoming courses.
✍️ Written by Aditya Tiwari — Defence current-affairs & GK faculty at The Cavalier. Reviewed by the Cavalier Faculty Desk. The Cavalier has trained NDA/CDS/SSB aspirants since 2001 (Facebook · YouTube).
Source: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change PIB release, 13 June 2026 (PRID 2272377). BD Act framework and ABS facts cross-verified.