Modi government’s new environmental laws a threat to India’s biodiversity and forests
https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/primed-for-plunder-modi-government-new-environmental-laws-biological-diversity-act-forest-conservation-act-a-threat-to-india-biodiversity-and-forests/article67158366.ece Leo Saldanha 5th August 2023
Ramaswamy R. Iyer, who retired as Water Resources Secretary, in an email exchange with his junior colleague Subramanian, wrote: “The point that remains is that the establishment of the HLC seems a disingenuous exercise. Many, including myself, suspect that the intention is to render all the environmental laws purely ornamental and all clearance procedures mere formalities. In other words, virtual repeal seems the real objective. It seemed to many of us that a whole series of environmental laws embodying several decades of enlightenment were about to be rendered dead letters.”
What the current Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav has done to the BDA is to implement what the EPA prescribed over a decade ago. The emasculation of the regulatory strength of the law by removing criminal penalties against violations is nothing short of India truncating its environmental laws to meet the long-standing demands of the US and transnational corporations—to ensure there is no criminal jurisprudence.
It is plausible then that the current amendments to the forest and biodiversity protection laws were not entirely an outcome of a sovereign process of law-making. When seen in the context of multiple assurances by the Modi administration to foreign investors guaranteeing “ease of doing business,” the constitutional implications for the sovereignty of the country are deeply worrying.
Bhupendra Yadav is likely to introduce Bills in the winter session of Parliament to amend pollution control laws and even the Environment Protection Act, 1986. The implications are frightening to imagine.
When the system so comprehensively failed despite having the power of utilising criminal law to enforce environmental, forest, and biodiversity protection laws, one can only wonder what the outcome will be when such regulatory powers are completely removed and these vital areas are protected merely by civil prosecution powers.
Clearly, this is not the environmental stewardship and jurisprudence the country deserves, especially at a time when its forests and forest communities and its urban and rural ecosystems are already reeling from the impact of climate change.
Corporate control over biodiversity? That’s what this new Bill would like to see https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/a-corporate-turn-biological-diversity-amendment-bill-favours-corporate-control-over-biodiversity/article65464082.ece