This essay examines the role of India’s 2006 Forest Rights Act in the procedures that regulate transfer of forest land to large infrastructure projects. Specifically, it shows the gap between the legally mandated requirements and how these are implemented in project approval processes.
This study is an attempt to understand the lived experience of people affected by land use change and related conflicts. Equally, if not more importantly, this research seeks to analyse what affected people do when such conflicts arise. What are the strategies they adopt and what kinds of remedies do they seek?
Even as the Joint Parliamentary Committee’s report on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) is awaited, several states have already brought about changes that severely compromise the scope of clauses related to consent, Social Impact Assessment (SIA), food security and hig
India’s strong environmental protection norms were meant to reduce the imbalance in negotiating positions between the promoters of industrial projects and those likely to be affected by them. Judged on that metric alone, they have largely met with failure.
In a bid to fast-track environmental clearances for industrial projects, the Narendra Modi government constituted a high-level committee in 2014 under T S R Subramanian to review key environmental laws. In the context of the controversial recommendations made by the T S R Subramanian Committee to ease environmental norms and dilute people’s participation in environmental governance to stimulate economic development, the article takes a critical look at the functioning of the Environmental Impact Assessment regime in India since its inception in 1994.
The manner in which the United Progressive Alliance government approved field trials of genetically engineered crops in the last few weeks of its term in office speaks poorly of its regard for the decision-making process.
The controversy surrounding the clearances given to the Mahan and Chhatrasal coal blocks that are located within forested areas in Madhya Pradesh illustrates the continuing tussle between environment and conservation on one side and regulatory trade-offs in the interests of speedier economic growth on the other. It also exposes the conflicting approaches and attitudes within the government.
By suggesting that even coal extraction falls within provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 and its specifi c provision of access and benefi t-sharing, the Madhya Pradesh State Biodiversity Board has raised important questions relating to the interpretation of the law. While the principle of profit sharing from commercial use of biological sources is justifi able, the authors argue that the principle of the conservation ethic should not be lost.
This report exposes the environmental damage and human rights violations against tribal and other forest dwellers in the forests of Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh, that are under threat from the Indian government’s massive coal expansion programme.
As India plays host to the Convention on Biological Diversity's 11th Conference of the Parties in Hyderabad in October 2012, this article takes a closer look at the country's legislation on the subject - the Biological Diversity Act (2002).
