The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) is a statutory body established in 2003 under Section 8 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (BD Act) to implement the provisions of the BD Act, fulfilling India’s commitments under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) signed in 1992. It performs facilitative, regulatory, and advisory functions for the Central Government on issues of conservation, the sustainable use of biological resources, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from their use.  It considers requests by granting or otherwise approval for undertaking any activity referred to in Sections 3, 4, and 6 of the BD Act. NBA has supported the creation of SBBs in 28 states and 8 union territories and advises the State Governments on the selection of areas of biodiversity importance to be notified under sub-section (1) of Section 37 as heritage sites and on measures for the management of such sites. It also issues guidelines for…