How Modi sarkar can give environment achhe din

It was the June of 2013, I was in Dehradun and it hadn't stopped raining for hours.

Cloudburst in various parts of north India led to continuous rainfall in Uttarakhand and parts of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Heavy water flow, clogged drains and landslides resulted in flash floods. Within a few days, things took a turn for the worse.

By the end of the month, nearly 5,700 people were dead or presumed to be so. Those were the worst floods seen in the country since the 2004 tsunami.

The tragedy was like any other natural disaster, but for the fact that it was, as attributed by many studies, a direct result of unplanned urbanisation and development activities taking place in the hills for years. The overarching evidence was so convincing that two years later Supreme Court took suo-moto cognisance of the matter and enquired about the role of hydro-electric projects in exacerbating the floods.

In 2014, Kashmir Valley was flooded. The death toll reached 300, and nearly 400 villages were submerged in water. The heart-wrenching Chennai floods of last year linger fresh in memory. While Delhi too received its due of mishaps in the form of a second consecutive bout of unseasonal rainfall, destroying 50 per cent of the Rabi crop as per the agriculture ministry's report.

Last year's damage was much more extensive, leading to 80 farmer suicides and the annihilation of the winter crops.

Global warming, a scorned reality taking shape now, was beyond anticipation until a few years ago. In the past, many of us failed to realise the climate change was real until it got too hot for ACs to handle or too cold for woollens to fight. The extreme weather conditions are crying out for comprehensive measures and we must not shy away from revisiting, amending and passing strict legislations.

Development versus environment

The relentless pursuit for growth and the call for "ease of doing business" means that the country is growing at a pace like never before. The testimony to this is the environment ministry's recent announcement that it cleared 943 projects in last 21 months. Comparing the minimum of "600 days" it took for environmental clearance under the UPA regime, the NDA government has stuck to an average of 190 days, said environment minister Prakash Javadekar.

He added: "It is my endeavour to reduce it from 190 days to 100 days."

Living up to his words, the minister soon proposed a recategorisation of industries based on the Pollution Index (PI), a factor of emissions (air pollution), effluents (water pollutants), hazardous waste generated and consumption of resources. It then exempted 36 non-polluting industries, called white industries, such as solar and wind power plants from the green nod - a move aimed at rationalising the process of setting up industries that are relatively safer.

Unfortunately, this has further simplified environment clearance procedure, notwithstanding environmental needs. The 36 white industries, including bio-fertilisers and pesticides, wind and mini hydropower generation et al, may not be as innocuous as the ministry assumes. For one, it cannot be ruled out that setting up a permanent structure requires vast arrays of land and generates residue in one form or the other. Secondly, some of these so-called white industries include electric bulbs and CFL industry, which deals with mercury.

For that reason, the new policy measure - to re-categorise and exempt some industries - could prove perilous if unregulated.

State of the forests

One of the most serious damages resulting from rapid industrialisation is the diminishing forest cover. According to the State Forest Report of 2015, nearly 2,510 square km of very dense and mid-dense forests have been wiped out since 2013. Deforestation in eco-sensitive areas, flood plains, hill stations, riverbanks and dense forests has directly and indirectly led to major disasters. As National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) confirms, "climatic conditions combined with haphazard human intervention" caused the Uttarakhand floods.

To ensure the minimal effect of human activities in sensitive areas, the government has promulgated the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, which is currently pending in the Lok Sabha. This will be an important legislation wherein levies will be imposed on the project proposed inside reserved forest or protected area. This money will then be utilised to plant trees elsewhere. 

However, it is crucial to note that money alone cannot make up for the forest lost, as highlighted by the parliamentary standing committee on Science & Technology and Environment & Forests in 2015. The committee recorded that despite massive budgetary provisions, 40 per cent of forests in the country are still degraded, calling for a planned afforestation drive at individual, institutional and state levels.

Land ownership

Another key divisive legislation in the government is the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. In June 2015, the prime minister directed the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) to ensure that every state implements the Forest Rights Act (FRA) within the stipulated period and passes the land back to its rightful owner - the community.

An Oxfam report was of the view that the FRA, if fully implemented, "could enshrine control for 150 million men and women over up to half of the country's forests." This would prohibit the industries from unremittingly exploiting the natural environment without consulting the locals.

The same Oxfam report also pointed out that the "Indian government is conflicting between human rights and commercial right." Therefore, it didn't come as a surprise when the government moved to dilute the Forest Rights Act. For this purpose, it withdrew the community consent clause for land acquisition in the new Land Ordinance Bill - a direct assault on FRA. Various state governments too, since then, have revisited the FRA.

Toxic air

Air pollution became a major concern for the government in 2015, when India overtook China's pollution levels. India, home to 13 out of the 20 most polluted cities in the world, was falling behind as per its own standards, as well as on many international rankings like Greenpeace's National Air Quality Index.

The government rushed to contain the alarming levels of PM (particulate matter) in the air, which peaked in 2015, and decided to jump from Bharat Stage IV to Bharat Stage VI emission norms by 2020, to curb vehicular pollution. A bold policy move designed to bring us at par with our European counterparts despite severe backlash from major automotive players.

Similarly, an additional excise levy known as the "Infra Cess" was announced in Budget 2016, on vehicles, to the tune of upto four per cent.

The role of National Green Tribunal (NGT) in the entire debate has been commendable. The tribunal first ordered a ban on diesel and petrol cars that are more than ten and 15 years old respectively, back in 2014. Only recently, the Supreme Court too joined the bandwagon and banned the registration of diesel cars over 2,000cc in Delhi.

The SC also doubled the environment compensation cess, lending support to environmentalists and social workers, while also encouraging PILs seeking curbs on the use of the diesel.

Vehicles versus pollution    

At the state level, Delhi's much hyped Odd-Even policy was momentous. The policy, despite several apprehensions, was largely appreciated for traffic de-congestion and significantly reducing PM 2.5 levels in the city, as pointed out by TERI (The Energy and Resource Institute). It is, therefore, no surprise that the Maharashtra government, too, is considering the move. However, whether such a policy can be replicated at the Centre is debatable.

Every country that has experimented with "Odd-Even" so far has limited it to a few cities, including China, France and Italy. Moreover, it's absolutely necessary to strengthen public transport, and to curb private use, before such a measure can be implemented on a broader scale.  

It is also a priority to get rid of old polluting vehicles. One anticipated move in this regard is the "End-of-life" policy or the scrappage policy, which awaits Cabinet approval. The policy will facilitate scrapping of old vehicles and provide excise incentive on the purchase of newer ones.

So while the entire discourse around air pollution accentuates the role of vehicular emission, various studies, including the one conducted by IIT Kanpur for Delhi and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for Mumbai, attribute road dust and secondary particulate emission to various sources, including industries, which are seen as primary contributors.

At this point, Delhi government's move to impose an Environment Compensation Penalty of Rs 50,000 on 38 major projects across the city for causing dust pollution is an important move to identify pollution at its source and appropriately penalise the polluter - something that can be replicated extensively.

Commitments in COP21

In December last year, leaders of 195 countries gathered to discuss and deliberate on the future of the world at the COP21 conference of Paris. It was an unprecedented meeting as world leaders unanimously decided to hold the increase in the global temperature to well below two degree Celsius. The role of India was crucial for the accord.

As the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, India pledged to reduce its green house gas emission intensity by over 30 per cent as a part of its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC). It also announced the goal of installing 175 gigawatts of renewable power capacity by 2022 and pledged to create an additional carbon sink of up to three billion tonne of carbon dioxide through tree cover.

While the country demanded "common but differentiated responsibility" in the meeting, it simply ruled out an absolute cut in carbon emission. Modi government's chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian remarked that coal "will and should, remain the country's primary source."

Even as the country laid out an ambitious goal, it fell short on the roadmap and the lack of clarity on emission intensity from the base year to target year (2030). Some studies, including the one conducted by the Centre for Policy Research, pointed out that India is much more capable of reducing its emission intensity.

It is also uncertain as to how India will achieve its forest cover target in the absence of any policy other than Green India Mission.

Way forward

A study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) demonstrates the degree of the damage incurred by the human race, every year. An estimated 12.6 million people died in 2012 as a result of living and working in unhealthy environments - making up 23 percent of all deaths reported globally.

Chief of WHO Margaret Chan warns: "If countries do not take actions to make environments where people live and work healthy, millions will continue to become ill and die too young."

Even as India has made strident progress in addressing environmental issues since the '90s, as per World Bank's "Environment Assessment" report 2011, the quality of the environment it offers to its citizenry is far superior. Hence, as the government advances towards its agenda of development, we, the people, must continue to question the feral expansion at the cost of environment.