Draft legislation prepared by the government to preserve the country's biodiversity offers no protection to farmers and indigenous communities, who will be the worst victims of biopiracy by multinational firms and even Indian researchers. Environmental activists say loopholes in the legal system allow Western researchrs to patent indigenous knowledge as "inventions," the most prominent case at present being the patenting of a strain of rice derived from Basmati by Texas-based RiceTec.A new draft of the biodiversity legislation being finalised by the ministry of environment and forests provides no protection to local communities even though the Convention on Biological Diversity recognises the rights of indigenous people over biological materials.