MoEFCC and the National Biodiversity Authority launched a five-year project to strengthen grassroots biodiversity governance in Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya. The initiative targets Biodiversity Management Committees at the local level and focuses on Access and Benefit Sharing mechanisms under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. The project aims to operationalise People's Biodiversity Registers and improve compliance with ABS frameworks, reinforcing India's commitments under the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Nagoya Protocol obligations.

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 created a three-tier governance structure: the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) at the national level, State Biodiversity Boards (SBBs) at the state level, and Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) at the local body level. BMCs are mandated to prepare People's Biodiversity Registers (PBRs), which document local biological resources, their habitats, folk varieties, cultivars, and traditional knowledge.

Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) is the core mechanism by which communities receive equitable benefits when their biological resources or traditional knowledge are accessed by researchers or companies. India operationalises ABS through the Nagoya Protocol (2010, in force 2014), to which it is a party.

The choice of Tamil Nadu and Meghalaya is significant: Tamil Nadu has one of India's highest counts of BMCs, while Meghalaya represents a biodiversity-rich northeastern state with strong community forest governance traditions. This project essentially stress-tests whether the bottom tier of the BD Act architecture is actually functional.

For examiners, this event surfaces four testable layers: (1) the three-tier NBA structure, (2) PBR mandates and BMC roles, (3) Nagoya Protocol's ABS rules, and (4) India's standing under CBD. The nodal ministry is MoEFCC; NBA is a statutory body under the BD Act headquartered in Chennai.