MoEF constitutes high level committee to review various acts

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change constitutes High Level Committee to review acts administrated by the Ministry



A High Level Committee (HLC) has been constituted by Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change to review the following Acts administered by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change.
(i) Environment (Protection) Act, 1986
(ii) Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980
(iii) Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972
(iv) The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act,1974
(v) The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981

The committee would be chaired by Shri. T.S.R. Subramanian. The other members of the committee are Shri Viswanath Anand, Justice (retd.) A.K. Srivastav and Shri K. N. Bhat.

The High Level committee has the following terms of reference:-
(i) To assess the status of implementation of each of the above Acts vis-a-vis the objectives;
(ii) To examine and take into account various court orders and judicial pronouncements relating to these Acts;
(iii) To recommend specific amendments needed in each of these Acts so as to bring them in line with current requirements to meet objectives; and
(iv) To draft proposed amendments in each of the above Acts to give effect to the proposed recommendations.

The ministry has invited Comments/suggestions/views on these. Please send us your comments and suggestions so that we can consolidate and send it to MoEF. The last date for submission to MoEF is 29th Sept, 2014.

[Paramvir Singh]

I hope the amendments will conserve whats left better, and help increase the area of conserved areas.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

We have submitted our response to the committee. I am an optimist, however this process doesn't give me much hope.

The total time limit for reviewing several acts is only two months. One month was for accepting the responses. The problem is that the committee wants the responses limited to only 1000 words. So we have to only choose a few points and talk about it. That means many other areas are not represented.

The committee is not doing extensive consultation process. In the past, I have been participant in many consultation processes held by MoEF which were far more rigorous. This High Level Committee is not going to present a draft findings for public consultation. It will give its report to MoEF. Clearly this process lacks transparency.

Nevertheless we have urged the committee to look at issues which others may not have taken up. I am sharing some of those points focused on preserving the habitats and wildlife corridors and omitted others.

Pointers from Supreme Court Judgment:
The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in its judgement on the writ petition (Civil) No. 337 of 1995 in the Centre for Environment Law, WWF-I vs Union of India and others, has noted that conservation of biological diversity is an integral part of our development process. “Conventions on Biological Diversity, signed in the year 1962 at Rio Summit, recognized for the first time in International Law that the conservation of biological diversity is “a common concern of human kind” and is an integral part of the development process.”

The above mentioned judgement says “While giving effect to the various provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, the Centrally Sponsored Scheme 2009, the NWAP 2002-2016 our approach should be eco-centric and not anthropocentric.”

In page 43 of the same judgment, the Hon’ble Supreme Court further says “Sustainable development, it has been argued by various eminent environmentalists, clearly postulates an anthropocentric bias, least concerned with the rights of other species which live on this earth. Anthropocentrism is always human interest focused thinking that non-human has only instrumental value to humans, in other words, humans take precedence and human responsibilities to non-human are based (on) benefits to humans. Ecocentrism is nature-centred, where humans are part of nature and non-humans have intrinsic value. In other words, human interest does not take automatic precedence and humans have obligations to non-humans independently of human interest. Ecocentrism is, therefore, life-centred, nature-centred where nature includes both humans and non-humans. The committee should incorporate the above-mentioned points as per by the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order into the new amendment.

The above judgment is a far reaching in terms of setting the principles ie foundation for other judgments to refer to apart from being direction to the Government for its actions. There are a few oft quoted judgments which I have omitted mentioning.

Wildlife Corridors:
The unplanned growth of human habitations is leading to various forests and protected areas getting disconnected from each other. Due to this the movement of wildlife from one protected area to other is stopped. This fragmentation of wildlife habitat leads to a closed gene pool, and in many cases leads to local extirpation of a species. Wildlife corridors need to be protected at any cost and there should be effort to recreate wildlife corridors that historically existed but have been lost. Enabling provisions in the Wildlife protection act should be created to help protect and recreate wildlife corridors for all endangered wildlife.

Create National Elephant Conservation Authority:

The MoEF based on the Elephant Task Force report had announced Elephant as the National Heritage animal. However, it hasn’t yet implemented its other suggestions. We urge you to create a National Elephant Conservation Authority and provide statutory status to the Elephant Reserves.

Expansion as well as any projects of railways through elephant habitats should be brought under FCA. Widening of roads and upgradation of railway tracks to broad gauge and electrification should only be allowed if adequate underpass and over passes are constructed in the elephant corridors.

Landowner of agricultural land where an elephant dies of electrocution should be prosecuted. This would curb the tendency of farmers to electrocute elephants and other wildlife.

Unscrupulous elements are exploiting a loophole by applying for permissions for small mines and quarries with area less than 5 hectares as these do not come under the Mines and Mineral Development Act. Several permissions sought under different entities results in complete fragmentation of the wildlife habitats, and are a big problem for the vanishing elephant corridors. The relevant acts needs to be strengthened and before according permission the combined effects along with other such mines or entities operating in the area should be ascertained.


Modify EIA process:
The EIA (Environment Impact Assessment) process needs to be strengthened. Too often people mention in the EIA reports that not many animals were sighted and hence certify an area to be devoid of wildlife. Nothing can be farther from the truth. By design wildlife turn nocturnal in disturbed areas. Also, certain areas are visited by animals and birds in various seasons during their migration and serve as key roosting areas for birds or migratory corridors for animals. Such places may appear desolate during other seasons. So EIA reports have to take into consideration about migratory wildlife. Also, EIAs should mandate recording of the soundscape of the place. Sound recordings over a period of time will help us in identifying the animals and birds in the place and would serve as a far more authentic record. Hence recording of soundscapes of the places to be made mandatory for EIA purposes.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

TSR Subramanian Committee Submits Report to Shri Prakash Javadekar


The TSR Subramanian Committee constituted to examine several environmental laws has submitted its report to the Hon'ble Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Shri Prakash Javadekar. Speaking on the occasion, the Minister likened the Report to be a historic achievement that would strengthen processes to balance developmental commitments and environment protection. The recommendations of the Report would enhance Ministry’s efforts to avoid undue delays and ensure transparency in clearances and implementation of projects. Lauding the efforts of the Committee for submitting the report in a short span of time, the Minister stated that Ministry would expedite consultations with all stakeholders for the timely implementation of the recommendations of the Committee.

In his remarks, Shri TSR Subramanian, Chairman of the Committee, said that the committee had built on the existing mechanisms to optimize the efforts to balance developmental imperatives causing least possible damage to environment. He further said that the committee had undertaken wide-ranging consultations with stakeholders and formulated action points to streamline Ministry’s efforts to strengthen institutions and processes. Unfortunately, this is farthest from the truth as this review with such a wide ranging impact was hurriedly done. There was a month to email the responses and there was a word limit of 1000 words. So many areas were not covered in the responses.

The High Level Committee conducted only few meetings with stakeholders. The meeting at bangalore was stopped abruptly when stakeholders questioned the committee about the short time and demanded time to be voice their suggestions. So it is really surprising to hear the views of the Chairman that they did wide ranging consultations and their suggestions will involve "least damage" to the environment. If we interpret this correctly, the floodgates to grab our wild areas are going to open soon.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Ecology committee set up without PM Narendra Modi's approval

Environment ministry has said that a high-level committee will be set up to review environmental, forest and wildlife laws of the country. The committee was constituted without the mandatory approval of the Prime Minister.

Documents accessed under the transparency law by Rohit Choudhury, an environmental activist and member of EIA Resources and Response Centre, state that the high-level committee headed by former cabinet secretary T.S.R. Subramanian was constituted under rules and regulations notified under an act of Parliament.

On being asked whether the Prime Minister's approval for constituting or reconstituting the panel was obtained through the cabinet secretary, the ministry merely replied that approval of "Hon'ble MEF and CC (Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change) was obtained".

The documents show that Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar kept PM Narendra Modi out of loop on green panel.

Though the RTI applicant also sought the bio-data of the members of the committee, the ministry replied that information in this regard was not available.

The committee, created by the ministry on August 29, submitted its report to Javadekar on November 18. However, the contents of the report have not been made public. The committee, which is administrative, has only an advisory role.

Responding to a query from Choudhury on why the work of the committee could not be outsourced, the ministry replied: "Outside experts are seniormost functionaries of the government and judiciary and their expertise is required for reviewing the acts and suggesting suitable amendments."

The committee was appointed to review the Environment Protection Act of 1986, Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, Forest Conservation Act of 1980, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974 and Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1981. Besides, it was asked to review all notifications issued under environmental laws and judgments of courts and tribunals related to these laws.

The committee comprised former environment secretary Vishwanath Anand, retired Delhi High Court judge A.K. Srivastav and former Additional Solicitor General K.N. Bhat. Civil society activists had opposed the inclusion of Anand as a member for his allegedly highrate of dismissals of environmental cases during his tenure as vicechairperson of the National Environment Appellate Authority irrespective of their merit.

RTI applicant Rohit Choudhury said: "As against the RTI replies, the fact remains that the panel is not constituted under any act or rules of Parliament. It doesn't have the approval of either the PM or cabinet secretary. An environment minister can approve the formation of committees other than high-level ones but here, he went beyond his ambit. The high-level panel has been clearly formed without examining the expertise of persons in environment, forest and wildlife laws. The ministry made no effort to check the background of people entrusted with the task. The sole aim seems to be dilution of laws."

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The report of the HLC (High Level Committee) headed by TSR Subramanian is out. Our worst fears have come true. The TRS Subramanian committee has proposed far reaching changes to the wildlife and environment laws which is enough to strike the last nail in the coffin of India's wilderness areas. I have covered it in detail in the december issue of IndiaWilds Newsletter. One can check it from this link: http://www.indiawilds.com/diary/indi...l-6-issue-xii/

[Sabyasachi Patra]

The report of the HLC (High Level Committee) headed by TSR Subramanian will be considered by the Parliamentary committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests headed by Shri Ashwani Kumar, MP, Rajya Sabha. Accordingly suggestions and views have been invited on the TSR Committee report. In this regard, an interesting press release has been released by MoEF which tries to project that this report is good. Sharing the complete press release below.
We have covered this report in detail in the IndiaWilds Newsletter Vol. 6 Issue XII http://www.indiawilds.com/diary/indi...l-6-issue-xii/ . On behalf of IndiaWilds, will be sending our views to the committee and request to allow us for Oral submission. Hopefully, the dates will match my travel schedule.


Report of the High Level Committee headed by Shri T.S.R. Subramanian to review various Acts administered by Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change
The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment & Forests, headed by Shri Ashwani Kumar, M.P., Rajya Sabha proposed to consider the above cited Report and invited views/suggestions/comments thereon from individuals/experts/Non Governmental Organisation/Stake-holders interested in the subject matter.

Some of the major recommendations of the Committee provide for economic incentives for increased community participation in farm and social forestry by way of promoting and proving statutory safeguards to ‘treelands’ as distinct from ‘forest’; making preparation of Wildlife Management plans mandatory and inserting a provision to this effect in the Wild Life Protection Act; creation of National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) at Central Level and State Environment Management Authority (SEMA) at the State level as full time processing/clearance/monitoring agencies; special treatment for linear projects, power/mining and strategic border projects; incorporation of noise pollution as an offence in Environmental Protection Act, etc. The report is available on the website of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

Those desirous of submitting their views and suggestions to the Committee may send their written memoranda (either in English or Hindi) to Shri M.K. Khan, Joint Secretary, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, 240, Second Floor, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi-110001 (Tel.: 23034047) or e-mail at mkhan@sansad.nic.in upto 31st December 2014. Those willing to appear before the Committee for oral evidence, besides sending Memoranda, are requested to indicate so. The Memoranda submitted to the Committee would form part of the records of the Committee and would be treated as confidential. Website:- rajyasabha.nic.in. E-mail: rsc-st@sansad.nic.in.