11 environmental disasters Narendra Modi blessed in his first 100 days
We get it: India reposed faith in a leader who promised achhe
din–”good times,” good governance, transparency, development, jobs,
jobs, jobs.
Now nobody can argue that prime minister Narendra Modi does
not mean business. So his government has gone about eliminating the policy
paralyses that many claimed ailed the previous regime. This meant dismantling
roadblocks that hamper economic growth. But what also happens to be under fire:
laws and rules that safeguard India ’s
environment, forests, wildlife, and tribal rights.
Consider what all the new government has achieved (or
undermined, depending on which side of the growth-versus-green debate one
stands) in just about three months:
- Environmental
and forest clearances have been delinked to allow work on linear projects,
such as highways, on non-forest land without waiting for approvals for the
stretches that require forest land. Defence
projects get priority along
- The height
of the Narmada dam will be raised. Irrigation projects requiring
2,000-10,000 hectares are now exempt from the scrutiny of the Centre and
can be cleared by state governments. Those requiring less than 2,000
hectares will require no green clearance at all. Separation of power
generation components from irrigation projects has allowed promoters to
project smaller requirement of land, making clearance easier.
- Changes
in the pollution classification now allow mid-sized polluting industries
to operate within five km of national parks and sanctuaries (instead of
the 10-km restrictive limit ordered by the Supreme Court).
- Ban
lifted on new industries in critically polluted industrial areas, such
as
- National
Board for Wildlife (NBWL) reconstituted by slashing the number of
independent members from 15 to just three. This truncated NBWL cleared
most of the 140 projects before it on August 12. On August 25, the Supreme
Court questioned
the Centre’s move, ruling that “any decision taken by it (NBWL) shall
not be given effect to till further orders”.
- The
process of reviewing
the National Green Tribunal Act to reduce the judicial tribunal
to an administrative one has been initiated. Headed by a retired Supreme
Court judge or a high court chief justice, the National Green Tribunal
(NGT) hears all first challenges to environmental and forest clearances.
“Laws keep changing,” Modi’s environment minister Prakash Javadekar has
famously justified.
- The
new government has also diluted
the Forest Rights Act that requires the consent of the local
tribal population for diverting forestland. Instead of gram sabhas
(village councils) certifying that their rights had been settled and that
they had consented to projects, the district administrations have now been
asked to do the same. This exercise must be completed in 60 days, irrespective
of the number of project-affected villages or the complication of the
process. Moreover, prospecting for minerals in forests are now exempt from
having to acquire the consent of local gram sabhas or settling tribal
rights.
- No public
hearing for coal mines below 16 million tonnes per annum (mtpa)
that want to increase output by up to 50% and those above 16 mtpa wanting
to expand by up to five mtpa. Instead of individual clearances, now mines
can seek approvals in clusters.
- To
turn the clock back, the new government is considering as many as 19
amendments to the new Land Acquisition Act. These include dilution of
the local consent requirement for public-private-partnership
projects, removal of the social impact assessment requirement, delinking
compensation for land from market value, relaxing the time limit for
completing acquisition, not returning unutilised lands to the original
owners, giving states overriding discretionary powers, etc.
- The
Ken-Betwa river-linking project that will drown more than 40
sq km of the Panna tiger reserve has been revived.
- The
new government also approved
field trials of 21 genetically modified (GM) crops, including
rice, wheat and maize (beforeputting
it on hold under pressure from the RSS).
To be fair, the process of undermining green concerns to
facilitate unbridled growth was initiated
by the previous regime. For whatever little ground he stood, the rhetorical
Jairam Ramesh was kicked out of the environment ministry and even his more
pliant successor Jayanthi Natarajan had to make way soon for Veerappa Moily.
The oil minister cleared more than 100 big-ticket projects during his short
stint at the environment ministry. With Modi watching over his shoulders,
Javadekar has already eclipsed Moily’s grand feat, in less than three months.
The prime minister, of course, has the mandate. He won on
the promise of nationwide development along the lines of the Gujarat
model. As the Yamuna in Delhi or
the Ganga in Varanasi gets
artificial facelifts like the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad, one could
possibly blame ignorance for selling concrete riverfronts as the cure for
choking rivers. But for good times’ sake, will India
be able to rationalize embracing Vapi—among
the world’s most polluted places—as the model of growth?
