the minister of state for environment and forests, Jayanti Natarajan [...] said: ”NBA has decided to proceed as per law against the alleged violators on the basis of reports of the State Biodiversity Board for accessing and using the local brinjal varieties without prior approval of the competent authority.” [... Leo Saldanha] began investigating if the local farmers knew which varieties of brinjal were chosen by the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad for genetic modification with technology support from Mahyco, and whether they approved of this. Saldanha says he wanted to ensure that farmers, who conserved the varieties over generations, got their due under the access and benefit sharing provision of the Act.