2016 — YEAR IN REVIEW. Despite hype, environmental protection remained a cry in the wilderness

What was supposed to be a bumper year in the space of environmental politics — with major decisions such as the amendment to the Montreal Protocol and the coming into force of the Paris agreement on climate change — turned into one of no action in India.

Even as India made ambitious promises on the international stage earlier this year, lack of transparency and any major concrete policy decisions and a fight for survival by civil society marred the year.

While the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill was passed by both Houses of Parliament and became an Act during the year, the rules are yet to be formulated.

“The CAMPA Act cannot be considered an achievement during the year. The ₹42,000-crore fund that has been collected has been through deforestation, and there is no roadmap on reforesting yet,” environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta said.

The year also became notable for several instances of opacity within the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change — forcing statutory bodies such as the Central Information Commission to step in.

The Ministry has refused to reveal documents that are supposed to be put on public domain — such as an old report that appears to have been the basis for amendments to coastal regulation laws, minutes of meetings by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee, biosafety reports on GM mustard, even proposal documents for projects under consideration for clearances.

The year also saw one of the major international environmental organisation’s — Greenpeace — licence cancelled. Prominent organisations appeared to take a conservative approach on contentious issues — such as clearance of mining projects, dilution of environmental safeguards in the real estate sector, clearances to major projects such as the Ken-Betwa river linking, coal mining, forest diversion, and several others. Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment, believes this stemmed from the fact that a number of organisations have been fighting for their own survival.

“Despite the fact that several environmental issues, such as river pollution, depletion of wildlife and forests, were exacerbated during the year, environment was still marginalised in 2016, with very limited conversations around it, unlike the previous year,” Bhushan said.

What has been a grim year, however, has strengthened grassroot organisations, Dutta said. “The people’s groups, such as those working on community rights, will be even stronger going forward since the need to mobilise has increased. The government will keep easing the way for business, and it is a serious problem. We should promote ‘Make in India’ but not just by compromising environmental laws,” he added.

COMMENT NOW