Forest and Environment - Who Cares!! At least not the government

This is what a new study released by the Centre for Science and Environment, an NGO, has to say...

For some time now, industry, government and regulatory agencies have been persistently talking about how environmental regulations have throttled the country’s growth. They have raged on about how the system of forest and environment clearances has forced India’s credit ratings to its nadir. And they have bitterly complained about how environmentalists were holding the country and its people to ransom.

All of which is unadulterated hogwash, says a new assessment by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The Director General of CSE Sunita Narain says “Environmental regulations are seen as impeding growth, but where is the impediment? We are finding that despite all the browbeating, almost every project is getting cleared with frightening consistency, making a complete mockery of our regulatory systems.”

If the report is to be believed that the Government of India has approved more damage to the environment and specially forest land in the last two year than has been done since independence

Take the case of coal mining. All coal mining areas are heavily polluted, and most coal mining companies have very poor environment management record: many of these places fall under the category of critically polluted areas (CPA). Monitoring by pollution control authorities shows about one-third of operating coal mines are violating all environmental norms. Despite this, coal mining projects in CPAs are being given the go-ahead quite regularly.

It is the same story in the case of coal-based thermal power projects. Of the top 10 districts where environmental clearance has been granted to these projects, six were declared as already critically polluted.

The report also speculates that, there could be a new scam to take over the land and the water of the people.