Needed: Green custodian as a constitutional office…..Shyam Divan
Over-arching Authority To Be Final Arbiter Of Resources
Over-arching Authority To Be Final Arbiter Of Resources
Whatever your views on Jairam Ramesh,there is no denying that the environment minister has given his job an elevated profile and a knuckle-duster punch that was lacking in times past.Is our existing institutional architecture capable of addressing tomorrows environmental challenges
In the coming decades,balancing claims over our natural resources will require an institutional framework that factors in ecological considerations at all levels of decision-making.Our population will climb to over 1.4 billion.We will soon have many of the worlds largest cities,consuming natural resources at a furious pace,as cities are wont to.Water stress will grow,exacerbated by shifts in precipitation due to climate change and the retreat of Himalayan glaciers.
There are other daunting challenges: air quality,disposing of waste,preserving our forests and bio-diversity,protecting wildlife and promoting the welfare of indigenous communities.As home to a seventh of the worlds population,India has an ethical responsibility to the global community to ensure that its development path is sensitive to the needs of our planet.
Who do we have today to fulfill these tasks No one.Despite,four decades of national legislation to control pollution,we have failed to build a single credible environmental institution.Not one state pollution control board (SPCB) has the capacity or institutional integrity to implement effective programmes or police industry.Pollution control is an optional,self- regulatory exercise where most polluters put in place the initial paper work and then obtain test reports from friendly laboratories.
The decimation of the countrys forests has compelled the Supreme Court to assume the role of custodian.
Urban planning across the country has failed to anticipate citizens needs.Frequently,city development initiatives are driven by builders and contractors.This is hardly surprising,since most of our cities do not employ qualified urban planners.
The principal central bureaucracy is Rameshs ministry of environment and forests.Its role has waxed and waned depending on the personality of the minister.Even at its dynamic peak,it is incapable of doing much to lift the quality of environmental governance on the ground.It has next to no leverage in building capacities at the state level by activating the moribund SPCBs and city administrations.The existing machinery appears unequal to the tasks that lie ahead.
There is an urgent need to create the space for a new autonomous authority that will lay an institutional foundation for our environmental security: the Environment Protector of India (EPI).
The EPI would be the Constitutional custodian of our forests,rivers,oceans and other natural resources.The agency would report to Parliament and the people on the state of the environment.It would provide a roadmap on what requires to be done to strengthen environmental security.This vision would range well beyond the remit of existing environmental regulators: Must cropping patterns change in order to conserve water What is the optimal mix of energy sources What design elements should be included in the master plans for our cities to make them livable,efficient and carbon neutral
The EPI would play the role of an ombudsman an independent referee to decide whether a highway should slice through a national park or whether a particular region should remain inviolate from commercial inroads.
The EPI would be supported by technical personnel as well as administrators at the state and local levels.The EPI would engage government agencies,review policies and laws and require changes to align the nation on a path of sustainable,equitable development.
The EPI would recommend budgets both fiscal and personnel-related,which would enhance existing capacities.It would provide a counter-weight to business whose political clout and ability to game the system will increase in the future.The office would develop into an institution the people trust a role being discharged by the Supreme Court in respect of our forests.
A Constitutional office elevates societal values and lifts environment to the level it belongs.Government policies and judicial pronouncements on sustainable development must be operationalized quickly and the best way ahead is a Constitutional authority that straddles the state and federal governments and which strengthens existing bureaucracies.
The Constitutional mantle will provide a model to the world as we grapple with planetary changes.A Constitutional office is consistent with our ethos and that core morality that demands the equitable enjoyment of natural resources.A fresh environmental imagination to steer the nation forward can be provided by a powerful new institution that the people trust.
The author is a Supreme Court lawyer