The Uttarakhand High Court orders a company run by famous Yoga guru Ramdev to share a percentage of its profits with local farmers and communities in Uttarakhand.

The high court gave this first-of-its-kind order while rejecting a petition of Divya Pharmacy against the Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board (UBB) and upholding the provisions of fair and equitable benefit-sharing (FEBS) as provided under the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said that held that the fact is that natural resources (herbs) were used to make Ayurvedic medicines. For this raw material, Ramdev's company should distribute 20 million local people out of the benefits of 421 crore rupees..

According to Bio Diversity Act 2002, the local people will also be given a share in earning in exchange for the use of forests and biological resources. In 2014, the government notified it, according to which people should be given benefits not only for biological resources but also to use traditional knowledge. As per the rule, If the annual turnover of the company is more than Rs 3 crores, then company has to give 0.5 percent of turnover (after deduction of taxs) to the people.