To                            2nd December, 2024

Shri Bhupender Yadav

Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change

I.P. Bhawan, Jor Bagh Road, New Delhi 110003

Sub: Formulating a Biosafety Policy reflecting CBD/CPB commitments of India

Ref: Submissions and Statements by Government of India to Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) for Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity Sixteenth Meeting, Cali, Colombia, 21 October–1 November 2024 – Letters from various farm union leaders over the past 4 months on the matter of Biosafety Policy

Dear Shri Bhupender Yadav ji,

You are aware that the Hon’ble Supreme Court, on 23 July 2024, directed the Central Government to make a national policy on GM crops and has stipulated it to be done only by consulting all the concerned stakeholders. It has suggested an upper time limit of 4 months for this.

The Government of India would have taken note of the fact that both the Hon’ble Judges stressed on the need for transparency and asked for the biosafety dossiers to be put out in the public domain on the regulators’ website. They asked for the enablement of public participation. They asked for independent, long term testing in our regulatory regime, with particular focus on human health. Environmental impacts, and contamination prevention in particular were also a matter of concern for both the judges. In other words, Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) was being asked to take its mandate seriously.

We have been pointing out that the regulatory regime is inadequate even in its design. There is no liability and redressal framework in place, no long term and independent biosafety testing, and no socio-economic considerations taken into account.

While this is so, we find that on 29 October 2024, India filed its online report to the Convention on Biological Diversity, for National Target 17 on “Strengthening Capacity For Implementation of Biosafety Measures” (https://ort.cbd.int/national-targets?globalTargets=GBF-TARGET-17&countries=in).  Here, we note that various global goals like ecosystem conservation, maintenance of genetic diversity, sustainable use of biodiversity are mentioned. Contribution and rights of indigenous peoples and local communities, gender, inter-generational equity, human rights-based approach are also listed as “considerations for implementation”. In the same report, the Government of India has also highlighted that number of biosafety laboratories for LMOs detection, number of guidelines and procedures for new categories of LMOs and emerging technologies, number of online resources for information access and sharing etc., will be the national indicators.

In reality, however, we find that biosafety dossiers have not yet been published on the regulatory websites. No action is discernible with regard to pro-active surveillance of illegal GMOs being discovered. No investigation has been initiated as far as we can see and no response has been given to our formal complaint to you on the discovery of illegal GM maize in India, by a Govt of India research body. You would kindly recall our email to you in November 2024 where we wrote about illegal GM maize discovered in India by a Government of India’s research institution. Gene editing techniques have been de-regulated for two categories of SDN1 and SDN2 genome edited organisms, even though there is scientific evidence on foreign genetic material as well as antibiotic resistant markers being inserted even in these two categories of GMOs. (Kindly refer to our letter here: http://indiagminfo.org/coalition-writes-to-moefcc-on-risky-unscientific-and-illegal-exemption-to-certain-categories-of-gene-edited-plants/ )

We also object strongly to “Number of LMOs which have undergone Risk Assessment and Risk Management” being made into a national indicator, making the function of the regulators into a clearing house of applications rather than protection of biosafety and socio-economic considerations of citizens, with regard to gene technologies in open air conditions.

In official virtual meetings as part of the CBD/CPB review processes, we find that Dr Vibha Ahuja of Biotech Consortium of India Limited (BCIL) speaking for India batting for harmonisation and data-sharing between developing countries, for fast-track clearances for GM crops in various countries based on clearance given in any one country: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CbOqo4PpXw

It is against this background that we request you to create an umbrella legislation for biosafety protection (which should also include socio-economic considerations), as recommended by high level committees.

Sincerely,

Secretariat,

Coalition for a GM-Free India