Access and Benefit Sharing : A Status Under Indian Legal Regime

Nature has nourished humanity till the present age and even is nourishing yet. Biodiversity being a component of nature is very essential for the survival of the mankind. Biodiversity is nothing but the variety of all living species which picturizes the beauty of the natural creation. This variety of species is interlinked to all human beings throughout their life. This aspect of relationship connects the concept of biodiversity to human rights. Human rights are those rights which are required to be enjoyed by every human being to live a life with human dignity. Thus, the access and benefit sharing of the Biodiversity as an essential human right has been taken for consideration by the world community in general and by several nations in particular. And for this reason several International Conventions, treaties, National Legislations, policies and rules are being framed from time to time with an objective primarily to safeguard the right of human access to Biodiversity and also to conserve the same Biodiversity at the same time. However, human enactments can never be absolutely perfect and laws are man made and therefore continuous evolution of these laws become necessary so that new aspects can be analyzed for approaching towards a near relative perfection which creates a demand for research in this area. Further, the need of the laws to mitigate the inconsistencies between the rights over access and benefit sharing of Biodiversity and the conservation of the same Biodiversity makes research more relevant in this regard. In this research, the researcher shall try to inquire upon the importance of the access and benefit sharing of Biodiversity as human rights by making a comparative analyze of some important international conventions, treaties and the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 in India. The various rights on the Biodiversity as provided under the Biological Diversity Act and the rules made under it will be critically analyzed in this research. The chief question that whether rights on the access and benefit sharing of Biodiversity is inconsistent with the conservative mechanism of such Biodiversity Resources or whether the said Act is adequate enough to draw a compromise between the rights of the indigenous people over the biodiversity and the conservation of the same Resources will be attempted to be highlighted