Environment & ClimatePriority2025-05-06

Biological Diversity (Amendment) Rules, 2025 Notified

Why focus: GS3 Environment — recent statutory Rules are high-probability for How-Many-Correct questions on BMC powers and origin certificates.

In News

What Happened

On May 6, 2025, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) notified the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Rules, 2025, effective from November 1, 2025. The rules fully digitalise the process of obtaining a Certificate of Origin for cultivated medicinal plants by requiring local Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) to maintain digital records on a web portal. Applicants now apply online via Form 11A and instantly receive a QR-coded certificate in Form 12.

Why It Matters

This amendment streamlines the trade of cultivated medicinal plants, eliminating bureaucratic delays and manual paperwork for farmers and AYUSH industries. By making the certification of cultivated flora transparent and efficient, it strongly incentivizes agricultural cultivation of medicinal herbs, directly reducing the over-exploitation and illegal harvesting of endangered wild plant species.

Background

History & Context

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 was substantially amended in 2023 to reduce pressure on wild medicinal plants by encouraging their cultivation. The 2023 amendment explicitly exempted users of cultivated medicinal plants, as well as AYUSH practitioners, from the financial burdens of Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) mechanisms. To operationalize this, the overarching Biological Diversity Rules, 2024 were notified in October 2024. However, under the 2024 rules, farmers and growers still faced a cumbersome, manual process of submitting physical or hybrid self-declarations to their local Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) to prove their plants were cultivated, not wild-harvested. To fix this bottleneck, the MoEFCC introduced the 2025 Amendment Rules to fully digitize the grassroots biodiversity tracking mechanism.

What Changed

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Maintenance of Records: BEFORE, applicants had to submit manual self-declarations of their cultivation details to the BMC. NOW, the responsibility shifts to the BMC, which must proactively maintain a digital register of cultivated medicinal plants in 'Form 11' on a designated web portal.
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Application Procedure: BEFORE, growers used a manual or hybrid method to apply for a certificate. NOW, the process is 100% digital, requiring applicants to file 'Form 11A' via the web portal.
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Application Fee: BEFORE, the fee structure for cultivation certificates was ambiguous under the hybrid model. NOW, a nominal fee of INR 200 has been standardized for submitting Form 11A.
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Certificate Generation: BEFORE, certificates were physically issued by the committee. NOW, the system auto-generates a digital Certificate of Origin in 'Form 12', complete with a unique ID and QR code for instant verification.
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Timelines and Escalation: BEFORE, the BMC had a strict 15-day timeline to issue the certificate, failing which the applicant could escalate the matter to the State Biodiversity Board (SBB) or the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA). NOW, the 15-day timeline and escalation routes have been entirely removed, as the certificate is auto-generated based on pre-verified BMC records.

What Did NOT Change

The core legal principle established by the 2023 Act remains intact: biological resources harvested from the wild are still subject to strict Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) regulations and require approvals from the NBA or SBB. Furthermore, the foundational role of the Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs)—which operate at the local Panchayat and Municipality levels—as the primary custodians of biodiversity data remains unchanged.

Prelims Angle

NCERT Connection

This real-world policy links directly to Class 12 Biology, Chapter 15: 'Biodiversity and Conservation'. The chapter explains the 'narrowly utilitarian' arguments for conserving biodiversity, highlighting that humans derive countless direct economic benefits from nature, heavily including medicines (bioprospecting). The 2025 Rules act as a direct conservation strategy: by simplifying the certification for *cultivated* plants (ex situ conservation/agriculture), the government reduces commercial pressure on *wild* populations (in situ conservation), preventing the overexploitation of natural ecosystems.

Common Misconceptions

✗ Only naturally occurring wild medicinal plants are regulated by the Biological Diversity Act.

✓ Cultivated medicinal plants also require Certificates of Origin and are heavily monitored by local BMCs, a process which is now fully digitalised via Forms 11, 11A, and 12.

Because the 2023 Amendment exempted cultivated plants from Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) fees, many assumed they were completely deregulated. In reality, strict tracking is required to ensure wild plants aren't illegally sold as cultivated ones.

✗ The Certificate of Origin for medicinal plants is issued by the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA).

✓ The certification process is managed entirely at the local, grassroots level by Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) via a digital web portal.

The NBA is the apex body for biodiversity in India, leading to the assumption that it issues all biodiversity-related certificates, ignoring the decentralized three-tier structure of the Act (NBA, SBB, BMC).

Practice Questions

Q1

How Many Correct

Consider the following statements regarding the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Rules, 2025: 1. The responsibility of maintaining the cultivation records of medicinal plants lies with the State Biodiversity Boards. 2. The rules introduced a mandatory escalation mechanism to the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) if the Certificate of Origin is delayed beyond 15 days. 3. Under the Biological Diversity framework, cultivated medicinal plants are exempted from Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) obligations provided they have a valid Certificate of Origin. How many of the above statements are correct?

Q2

Match the Following

Q3

Assertion & Reason

Assertion (A): The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Rules, 2025 eliminated the 15-day timeline and escalation routes to the State Biodiversity Board for issuing Certificates of Origin. Reason (R): The certificate generation process has been fully automated and is digitally generated based on pre-existing web-portal records maintained by the Biodiversity Management Committees. Select the correct answer from the codes given below:

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