A NATIONAL environment policy is on the anvil. The Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has drafted a version and placed it in the public domain for all to review in two months. But the draft has made the civil society sulk. Their grouse: MoEF has become insular. It's liberalised avatar, they say, doesn't really accommodate people's views. The draft is a refusal to engage creatively with the public.

But could it be that the civil society has missed the point? Could it be that MoEF is getting smarter? Consider the possibility that the ministry today has a more engaging fa