India's new Narendra Modi-led government is reviewing various environmental laws but the speed of the process and the cloud of secrecy around it has alarmed various environmental activists.
On August 29 the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change issued an order to set up what it called a high level committee to review various Acts including the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
In its order it said, "it has been decided to constitute a High Level Committee to review these Acts and suggest appropriate amendments to bring them in line with their objectives." And this work has to be completed within two months from the date of the order.
Since these Acts provide the backbone of environmental governance in the country and any changes are likely to have far reaching impact, environmental activists and lawyers have raised an alarm on a few aspects of this order--it doesn't explain what are the objectives that the Acts need to be realigned with; it has no subject experts or environment experts on the committee that has been set up to review these Acts; the time frame of two months is too short a period for such a mammoth task.
The ministry did not respond to a detailed list of questions seeking clarifications on the order, the review process and the committee it has set up to undertake the review.
"The task is huge and requires a much more detailed, comprehensive, real and effective consultative process than what is currently being done," said advocacy and law group Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) in a written submission to the committee.
In his submission Ritwick Dutta, environmental lawyer and managing trustee of LIFE, said, "Contrary to what is generally projected by the Industry Associations and a section of the press, environmental laws are not the cause of slow economic growth. Rather, speedy and hasty approvals have been the cause of both environmental, social and economic loss and damage."
For instance, says Dutta, on an average, 333 acres of forest land is diverted each day by the Ministry of Environment and Forest under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. This does not include forest land below 40 hectares and those illegally diverted.
Dutta adds, "The Ministry of Environment and Forest and its various expert committees never reject a project totally. Even if the approval is declined in one meeting, it is presented in a subsequent meeting with minor modification."
In its submission to the committee, the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, a research and advocacy group, raised the same point. It cited the work of the expert appraisal committee for river valley and hydropower projects, a federal government agency whose role is to evaluate these projects across the country, and said, "the committee has not rejected almost any of the projects that came its way in the last seven years." At least 260 projects came up of which 240 received clearance and the rest were pending.
Another key concern that activists have raised is about the people chosen to lead this task. The committee, which is chaired by former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian, has four members including the chairman and two secretaries, all retired government officials. But none are environment experts or environment lawyers. One member, Viswanath Anand, is a former environment secretary and former vice chair of the National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA). The NEAA is the appellate body that considers appeals from affected people and environmental groups regarding violations of environmental and forest clearances. SANDRP cites media reports saying that during his tenure at NEAA, Anand admitted very few appeals. He is also on Coca Cola India's advisory council on environment and sustainability. In its submission to the committee, SANDRP also raised this a a conflict of interest between his public and private sector roles. The ministry did not respond to a query on this appointment.
Activists have also alleged a lack of transparency in the process as the government order does not require the committee to to seek public comments and suggestions. However, the ministry's website does offer a link to the committee where the public can post their comments--as long as they can keep them to within a thousand characters, that's under 200 words or a third of an A4 size paper, a metric probably inspired by the prime minister's active use of microblogging site Twitter where comments are restricted to 140 characters.
India's environmental laws are a result of international conventions, commitments and judicial pronouncements, reminds Dutta. Any changes in it will have to adhere to those global laws.
"India’s environment has already been impacted negatively due to hasty decisions," said Dutta in his submission to the committee. "The least this [high level committee] can do is not to prepare a hasty report based on limited one sided information and limited public interaction."
