Biodiversity Conservation in Jammu and Kashmir State: Legal Framework and Concerns

Abstract

The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) State is known for its biological resources. A plethora of State-enacted laws regulate multiple components of these resources. Conservation of biological resources is an indirect or incidental concern in some of these laws, while optimum utilization of resources to generate revenue is the main object hidden between the lines of the statutes. After the Stockholm Conference of June 1972, host of centrally enacted laws for the protection of the environment either has a direct application in the State or has been applied with its concurrence. A comprehensive law for conservation, sustainable use and benefit-sharing of biological resources has been legislated by the Parliament of India in the form of Biological Diversity Act, 2002, which is also applicable to J&K State. Thus, a wide variety of laws, old and new, State and central, operate in the State without a thorough probe to ensure that these laws reconcile with each other and to screen out the laws and policies that are incompatible with or contradictory to conservation goals. Adoption of an integrated approach to biodiversity, integrating biodiversity concerns squarely into existing related statutes and rules, strengthening of Environmental Impact Assessment system and the legal action infrastructure, including locus standi and right to information of citizens and other similar issues, are vital to the efficacy of the laws. In this chapter, an attempt is made to trace out the existing biodiversity laws and their flaws and to suggest a workable alternative to make them achieve the goals of conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of utilization of genetic resources in Jammu and Kashmir State.