CURRENT AFFAIRS | 10 OCTOBER 2026
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) has disbursed ₹2.02 crore of Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) funds to 27 States and 3 Union Territories, according to a release issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change through PIB on Saturday, 10 October 2026. The money represents the States’ and UTs’ shares of ABS contributions paid by seed-sector companies for using India’s agricultural biological resources. With this release, the PIB note says, the NBA’s cumulative ABS disbursement has reached ₹202.00 crore.
Two days earlier, on Thursday, 8 October 2026, a separate PIB release reported that the NBA had received ₹9.68 crore from users of India’s biological resources between 1 April and 30 September 2026. Read together, the two releases show both halves of the ABS cycle: money flowing in from companies that use biological resources, and money flowing out to the bodies that conserve them at the grassroots.
What was disbursed, and to whom
According to the 10 October release, the contributions came from the use of crops such as rice, eggplant, cauliflower, cucumber, hot pepper, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, tomato and okra, covering several varieties and hybrids. The paying companies named in the release are East West Seeds India, Syngenta India, Devgen Seeds and Crop Technology, Limagrain India, Bayer Science & Innovation, Nunhems India and Enza Zaden India.
A practical problem arises when seed companies buy biological material through markets or traders: the farmers or communities who should receive the benefit cannot be individually identified. For such cases, the NBA applied distribution modalities recommended by an expert committee and approved by the Authority. The beneficiary share was apportioned among the State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) and Union Territory Biodiversity Councils (UTBCs) in proportion to the cultivation area of the relevant crops, as shown in the agricultural statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
The top 10 States received ₹1.43 crore of the ₹2.02 crore. Madhya Pradesh received the largest share (about ₹23.81 lakh), followed by West Bengal (about ₹23.33 lakh) and Odisha (about ₹19.76 lakh). Bihar, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra complete the top ten, while the remaining States and UTs together received about ₹58.95 lakh.
What the money is meant for
The release lists the uses: strengthening Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs), updating People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs), conserving traditional crop varieties and medicinal plants, restoring habitats and promoting sustainable management of biological resources at the grassroots. It adds that ABS-funded work can complement tribal and livelihood schemes such as PM-JANMAN (Pradhan Mantri Janjati Adivasi Nyaya Maha Abhiyan), the Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Vikas Mission and the Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana.
The inflow: ₹9.68 crore in six months
The 8 October release gives the other side of the ledger. Of the ₹9.68 crore received in April–September 2026, ₹9.56 crore was for access to biological resources. The agri-seed sector was by far the largest contributor at ₹7.16 crore, followed by food and beverages (₹1.59 crore) and animal husbandry (about ₹62 lakh); smaller sums came from AYUSH, Red Sanders wood and cosmetics. Receipts linked to IPR-related applications came to about ₹11.24 lakh.
East West Seeds India was the largest contributor (around ₹2.01 crore across several payments), while the single largest payment was ₹1.17 crore from Synergia Life Science. Contributions came from domestic and foreign entities, including entities from Sri Lanka, Germany, France, the Republic of Korea and Bhutan. The resources used ranged from pulses such as chickpea and red lentil to medicinal plants such as Ashwagandha, Shatavari and Bacopa, soil microbes such as Rhizobium and Trichoderma, and livestock genetic resources including Mithun and frozen semen of Murrah buffalo. According to that release, since 2008 the NBA has realised around ₹278 crore through ABS and disbursed more than ₹200 crore.
Constitutional / Legal Framework
Biological Diversity Act, 2002: India’s law implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). It creates a three-tier structure — the National Biodiversity Authority at the Centre (headquartered in Chennai), State Biodiversity Boards in the States, and Biodiversity Management Committees at the level of local bodies. BMCs maintain the People’s Biodiversity Registers. The Act was amended in 2023, and the 8 October release confirms that ABS receipts are collected under the Act “as amended in 2023” and the ABS Regulations.
The ABS principle: a person who obtains biological resources or associated traditional knowledge for research, commercial use or intellectual-property claims must seek approval and share the benefits fairly with the communities and States that conserved those resources.
Constitutional link: Article 48A (a Directive Principle) directs the State to protect and improve the environment and safeguard forests and wildlife, and Article 51A(g) makes protecting the natural environment a fundamental duty of every citizen.
International layer: the CBD (opened for signature at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit) has three objectives — conservation, sustainable use, and fair and equitable sharing of benefits. The Nagoya Protocol on ABS was adopted in 2010 and entered into force in 2014. The PIB release links India’s ABS work to Target 13 (benefit-sharing) and Target 19 (resource mobilisation) of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, and to India’s NBSAP 2024–2030.
Why this matters: biopiracy, fairness and federalism
The ABS system answers an old grievance of biodiversity-rich countries: that companies could take seeds, plants or traditional knowledge, develop commercial products, and pay nothing to the people who had nurtured those resources for generations. The NBA’s data shows the system working at scale — but also its limits. When resources are bought through anonymous markets, benefits cannot reach a specific village, so the NBA uses a formula based on cultivation area. That is a reasonable proxy, but it means money is routed through State boards rather than directly to the original cultivators.
The disbursement also illustrates cooperative federalism in environmental governance: a central authority collects, an expert committee designs the sharing rule, and State and UT bodies spend the money through local BMCs. The release places this in a global setting, noting that India will take part in COP 17 of the CBD, which begins on 19 October 2026 in Yerevan, Armenia. It also links ABS to several Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 17 (Partnerships).
The CLAT Angle
GK passage: expect questions on the three tiers under the Biological Diversity Act (NBA–SBB–BMC), the NBA’s headquarters (Chennai), the Nagoya Protocol (adopted 2010, in force 2014), and the host of CBD COP 17 (Yerevan, Armenia).
Legal reasoning: a principle such as “whoever commercially uses a biological resource must share benefits with those who conserved it” can be applied to facts where the conservers cannot be identified. The NBA’s answer — route the share to the State board in proportion to cultivation area — is a model of how a rule handles an untraceable beneficiary.
Numbers trap: do not confuse ₹2.02 crore (disbursed on 10 October) with ₹9.68 crore (received in April–September) or ₹202 crore (cumulative disbursement).
Analysis
Three features stand out. First, the seed sector dominates: it supplied ₹7.16 crore of the six-month receipts and was the sole source of this disbursement, which explains why agricultural States with large crop areas top the list. Second, the ratio of collection to disbursement — roughly ₹278 crore realised against more than ₹200 crore disbursed since 2008 — shows that most money collected does flow back out, although timing gaps remain. Third, the purpose list in the release puts heavy weight on institutions (BMCs and PBRs) rather than cash transfers. Well-maintained registers are what allow future benefits to be traced to specific communities, so investing in them should reduce reliance on area-based formulas over time.
Key Facts
- NBA disbursed ₹2.02 crore of ABS funds to 27 States and 3 UTs (PIB, 10 October 2026).
- Source: ABS contributions from seed-sector companies (rice, tomato, okra, cauliflower and other crops).
- Untraceable beneficiaries: share apportioned by cultivation area, as recommended by an expert committee.
- Top 10 States received ₹1.43 crore; Madhya Pradesh got the largest share.
- Cumulative NBA ABS disbursement: ₹202.00 crore.
- NBA received ₹9.68 crore in April–September 2026; agri-seed sector ₹7.16 crore (PIB, 8 October 2026).
- Largest single payment: ₹1.17 crore (Synergia Life Science).
- Since 2008: about ₹278 crore realised through ABS.
- Law: Biological Diversity Act, 2002, amended in 2023; NBA HQ Chennai.
- Nagoya Protocol: adopted 2010, in force 2014; CBD COP 17 opens 19 October 2026 in Yerevan, Armenia.
Memory Hook / Mnemonic
“2 – 9 – 202 – 278”: 2.02 crore given out, 9.68 crore came in, 202 crore total given out, 278 crore total collected since 2008.
“N-S-B, top to bottom”: NBA (Chennai) → State Biodiversity Boards → Biodiversity Management Committees in local bodies. And “Nagoya 10–14”: adopted 2010, in force 2014.
Practice Quiz — 10 CLAT-Style Questions
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