The Indian mechanism of environment protection regime and process has emerged as one of the best in the world, where a very fine balance between the need for growth and preservation of environment has been maintained.
With the economic development of the country and the rapid growth of population, there is an urgent need to increase our agricultural as well as industrial output, which more often than not, comes in direct conflict with the state of environment and environment protection legal regime in India. Today like any other country in the world, India is faced with the classic dilemma of making a choice between development and environment.
The Directive Principles of State Policy of the Indian Constitution provide the State’s commitment to protect the environment. In the recent past the judiciary, especially the Supreme Court of India, has given recognition to concepts such as sustainable development, the precautionary principle, and polluter- pays principle. Also, the right to the environmental protection has been recognised as right to life as embodied in Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
EIA is an exercise to be carried out before any project or major activity is undertaken to ensure that it will not in any way harm the environment on a short term or long term basis. Any developmental endeavour requires not only the analysis of the need of such a project, the monetary costs and benefits involved but most important, it requires a consideration and detailed assessment of the effect of a proposed development on the environment. The environment impact process was introduced with the purpose of identifying /evaluating the potential beneficial and adverse impacts of development projects on the environment, taking into account environmental, social, cultural and aesthetic considerations. All of these considerations are critical to determine the viability of a project and to decide if a project should be granted environmental clearance. An EIA concentrate on problems, conflicts and natural resource constraints which might affect the viability of a project. It also predicts how the project could harm to people, their homeland, their livelihoods, and the other nearby developmental activities. After predicting potential impacts, the EIA identifies measures to minimize the impacts and suggests ways to improve the project viability.
The process of public hearing is conducted prior to the issue of NOC from SPCB. The District Collector is the chairperson of the public hearing committee. Other members of the committee includes the official from the district development body, SPCB, Department of Environment and Forest, Taluka and Gram Panchayat representative, and senior citizen of the district, etc. The hearing committee hears the objections/suggestions from the public and after inserting certain clauses it is passed on to the next stage of approval (Ministry of Forest and Environment).
Once all the requisite documents and data from the project authorities are received and public hearings (where required) have been held, assessment and evaluation of the project from the environment angle is completed within 90 days and the decision of the ministry shall be conveyed within 30 days thereafter. The clearance granted shall be valid for a period offive years for commencements of the construction or operation of the project.
What do you think are the problem areas in the environment protection and regulation regime in India, especially in power sector?
There is a complete softness towards polluters both at the central as well as state level. There are two things here: regulatory regime and self regulatory regime. Industries have failed on the front of self regulation while the Central and State Pollution Control Boards established under the regulatory regime have proved to be toothless wonders. Further, there is a lot of political and bureaucratic interference in the activities of the Boards and therefore they do not behave like autonomous regulatory bodies. The whole situation is further aggravated by the acute resource crunch, both financial and human, faced by the Boards. Many Boards have to monitor more than 2 lakh industries with less than 20-30 officers. Our regulatory bodies are not able to enforce the laws effectively. I believe that unless the industries themselves take up control of pollution issue as the part of their corporate ethics practices, there can’t be much change in the scenario.
Very stringent regulations will hamper economic growth while a liberal regime will lead to rise in pollution, how to solve this dilemma?
We don’t have very strict regulation and therefore there is no question of our regulations being stringent. In India the rate of conviction of the offenders under the various Environment statutes is abysmally low. Under the “polluter pays principle” neither there has been any exemplary fine imposed so far on any offending industry nor there has been conviction and imprisonment of any offender under the various Environment statutes, which have all such provisions. Though I don’t believe that advanced countries have done much in curbing pollution, yet we find that there has been a higher degree of compliance by their industries towards the standards set for them, usually up to 60-80%, while in the Indian scenario the compliance level is as low as around 10%. Also at times we find in India that when a delinquent industry is prosecuted, there is much hue and cry and allegations are leveled alleging discrimination. The need of the hour is to have really strong Boards and address the enforcement problems, as we may have the most stringent laws but that still will not solve our problems if the enforcement mechanism is left, the way it is at present, weak and toothless.
Although electricity is a clean form of energy at the consumption stage, yet the process of generating electricity may involve depletion of natural resources, environmental pollution, displacement of population, health hazards, drastic changes in land use pattern, corrosion of structures, buildings and monuments, reduced yield of crops and loss of forests. The impact of power stations on the environment depends to a large extend on their locations with respect to waterbodies, agricultural and forest lands etc. Many adverse impacts of thermal powerplants can be offset by right technological control. Judicious siting, necessary control measures and effective environmental management of the operating plants also minimises adverse impact. The MoEF (Ministry of Environment and Forests) is the focal agency responsible for control of environmental pollution and environment conservation.
A policy framework and various legislative instruments guide energy generation and environment conservation. According to the National Conservation Strategy and Policy Statement on Environment and Development, (1992, MoEF) the following measures should be taken with regard to prevention and control of pollution and environmental hazards in energy generation and use, as also for encouraging an environmentally benign energy system:
“The impact of power stations on the environment depends to a large extend on their locations with respect to waterbodies, agricultural and forest lands etc. Many adverse impacts of thermal powerplants can be offset by right technological control. Judicious siting, necessary control measures and effective environmental management of the operating plants also minimises adverse impact.”
Despite the multiplicity of legislations and authorities associated with environment regulatory mechanism in India, this mechanism, within their limitations, have certainly put the environmental concerns at the top of the priority list. With the active judiciary and heightened awareness among masses regarding the environment issues the Indian mechanism has emerged as one of the best in the world where a very fine balance between the need for growth and preservation of environment has been maintained.
www.grandmasters.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.rcls.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.itlegalsummit.com | 8 Years & Counting
www.bfls.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.maels.in | 8 Years & Counting
www.plcs.co.in | 8 Years & Counting
Copyright © 2020 Lex Witness - India's 1st Magazine on Legal & Corporate Affairs Rights of Admission Reserved
