In the garb of streamlining green clearances, the Union government has sidelined communities and diluted environmental regulations over the past four years
WHEN THE National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power in May 2014, riding on a public sentiment for change, we, as researchers on environmental governance, nurtured a fear: the overtly business friendly government would dilute environmental norms.
The previous government, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in its first term, had brought in legislations, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification (2006), to tighten environmental impact assessment process, and introduced rights-based legislations, such as the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (FRA), 2006, and the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, empowering gram sabhas (village councils) to give consent for development projects that involved forest diversion and land acquisitions. But in its second term (2009-14), UPA started diluting these legislations. The fear was that NDA would continue with the same approach. It has come true.
Just four months after it came to power, NDA set up a High Level Committee on Forest and Environment Related Laws, headed by former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian, to propose reforms to India’s complex and much-maligned environmental clearance (ec) and forest diversion processes, and other environmental laws. However, no such overhaul happened. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology rejected the Subramanian committee’s patchy recommeNDAtions in July 2015.
In the past four years the Union government has given EC to 1,098 projects in the major development sectors and about 124,788 hectares (ha) of forestland diversion has been agreed upon to give way to 6,060 projects in various development sectors. The forestland diverted is over 80 percent of the area of Delhi.
This story is from the August 01, 2018 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 01, 2018 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
INVISIBLE THREAT
Significant presence of microplastics in Puducherry’s agricultural soil raises concerns for soil and crop health
Feeding off each other
VEGETARIAN MOVEMENTS IN SOUTH ASIA AND THE WEST GREW WITH MUTUAL SUPPORT AND VALIDATION
India's unhealthy patent amendments
Despite strong pleas, the Modi regime has changed the rules to impose a cost on those who challenge faulty patents
URBAN DISCOMFORT
Poorly planned, heat-trapping infrastructure, along with dwindling natural spaces, turn up the temperatures in major Indian cities
BLAZING SUN IS ON
Rising temperatures are testing the limits of human tolerance to heat. With their predominantly built-up landscape, urban areas offer no respite. A study by the Centre for Science and Environment on the morphology and heat patterns of nine Indian cities over the past decade shows how these urban centres are turning into heat islands with a potentially serious impact on human health. An analysis by Rajneesh Sareen, Mitashi Singh and Nimish Gupta, with Shagun in Haryana and Kiran Pandey
"H5N1 may be more severe than COVID-19"
In early April, the US confirmed the first case of avian influenza in livestock, along with cow-to-human transmission of the virus disease.
A PSYCHEDELIC HIGH
Driven by surge in global trials and low success rate of current medications in treating mental health problems, researchers call for home-grown clinical trials of psychedelic drugs
Locked out
Two years after becoming the only state to be excluded from the Centre's ruralemployment guarantee scheme, villages in West Bengal grapple with distress migration and debt traps
'Protection from climate change part of right to life'
The Supreme Court of India, on April 5, recognised that citizens have a right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change, saying it is intertwined with the fundamental rights to life and equality. Here are the key arguments articulated by the three-judge bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra in their judgement
Weaving dreams
Tribal communities in West Bengal slowly embrace traditional weaving to ensure sustainable livelihood