‘We Don’t Just Have An Environmental Crisis, But A Govt In Denial As Well’ : Prerna Singh Bindra
India ranked among
the bottom five nations in the global Environmental Performance Index
(EPI) list released
in January 2018, slipping 36 places in two years. Multiple studies conducted
recently have shown that India is dealing with an environmental crisis. Consider the
following findings:
- None of the 280 Indian cities surveyed in
a recent Greenpeace study met
the World Health Organization (WHO) standards for clean air, with capital
city Delhi ranking worst, as IndiaSpend reported on
February 5, 2018;
- Yamuna, which runs through Delhi,
has 16
million faecal coliform parts per million (PPM). The standard is
500 PPM for potable water;
- Bengaluru’s lakes often catch
fire because of the waste and untreated sewage dumped in them.
The government does
not appear to be worried about India’s poor showing in environment protection.
The minister for environment, forests & climate change (MoEFCC) Harsh
Vardhan has dismissed them
as “just rankings”. Citizens seeking
redressal of environmental grievances have therefore turned to the judiciary,
notably the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which was established as an act in
Parliament on October 18, 2010.
“The green tribunal
is now the epicentre of the environmental movement in India,” environment
lawyer Ritwick Dutta told IndiaSpend. “It has become the first and
the last recourse for people because their local governments are not doing the
job of protecting the environment. But political apathy, indeed deliberate
action, are rendering the NGT ineffective.”
A law graduate from
Delhi University, Dutta, 43, started pursuing environment law in 2001. His
first case was against Vedanta, the mining company, where he represented the
Dongria Kondh tribals seeking a ban on bauxite mining in the Niyamagiri hills
in south-west Odisha, considered sacred by local communities. Dutta has, since,
taken on cases against other mega mining projects too–the Rs 9,000-crore
Polavaram multi-purpose irrigation project in West Godavari district of Andhra
Pradesh and the Lafarge lime mining project in Mandi district of Himachal
Pradesh. Dutta also fought for the Ratnagiri farmers whose mango orchards would
have been affected by JSW’s thermal power plants.
In 2005, Dutta
co-founded the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) with another
environment lawyer Rahul
Choudhary. Two years later, they set up the Environment Impact Assessment
(EIA) Resources and Response Centre, which provides an accessible database on
EIA reports–known for being subjective and fraudulent–along with a critical
analysis.
In an interview
with IndiaSpend, Ritwick explained the collapse of green governance
in India, how the current government is diluting environmental safeguards and
how the NGT is being weakened.
Recent studies have
shown that India ranks among the bottom nations in environment performance
while it tops
the world in environment conflict. What explains this crisis?
One way of looking at
this is that the level of reporting of conflicts is high–unlike say in
China–and also because the system allows you to raise your voice. Having said that,
India is witnessing a high level of environment conflict across the landscape.
One reason is that, in absolute numbers, more people–250 to 300 million–in
India are dependent on natural resources than any other country in the world.
Our people depend on forests, wetlands, seas, rivers, grasslands, mountains for
their livelihood and sustenance. And all these ecosystems are under severe
pressure.
The Himalayas are set
to have the highest concentrations of dams in the world, so states like
Himachal, Arunachal and Sikkim are fraught with conflict over water, and dams
(with consequent displacement and loss of forests). In central
India–Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand–the takeover of land for mining has
communities up in arms; Goa is taking to the streets against the plans to
transform it into a coal corridor. Tamil Nadu–and indeed across the
country–there is a war over sand–with officials, reporters, environmentalists
being killed and harassed for taking up the (issues of) sand mafia/illegal
mining.
Add to this the fact
that India’s forests are under very severe pressure. Between 2014 to 2017,
36,500 hectares of forest land were diverted for non-forest purposes like
mining, highways, industry, and so on. This works out to an annual average of
12,166 hectares, or the equivalent of 63 football fields every
single day. This does not include the encroachments.
Thirteen of the 20
most polluted cities in the world are in India. The Yamuna–flowing through
India’s capital–has 16 million faecal coliform parts per million (PPM); the
standard is 500 PPM for potable water. Even the flush in your toilet might have
cleaner water.
The Lancet report
which said that 2.5
million people are dying prematurely due to diseases linked to
pollution was dismissed as a western conspiracy. Environment minister Harsh
Vardhan, also a doctor, has denied
reports that suggest air pollution leads to millions of death every
year saying that: “To attribute any death to a cause like pollution may be too
much.”
So we don’t just have
an environmental crisis, but the government is in denial as well... read more:
