ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS
 

4.1 The Approach

The scenario of environment and forests continues to cause concern. Destruction and degradation of forests are taking a heavy toll of our soil and water resources. An estimated 6000 million tonnes of top soil with essential nutrients are flowing into the sea every year. Loss of top soil, vegetative cover and the inability to retain water have seriously affected the lives of especially tribals and other weaker sections of the society. Overall degradation of nature is also making our resources less productive, leading to impoverishment of the rural population.

Much of the water resources and the air in the country continue to be polluted, affecting human health. Besides traditional domestic pollu- tants, there is increasing contamination by chemicals, heavy metals and other toxic substances which are thrown into the rivers and the sea due to careless industrial and agricultural practices. unplanned urban growth and industrialisation are also increasing the levels of pollution.

This environmental degradation seriously threatens economic and social progress of the country. Our future generations may discover that life support systems have been damaged beyond repair.

The causes for environmental degradation are many. The prevailing conditions of poverty and under development themselves create a situa- tion where people are forced to live in squalor and further degrade their environment. On the other hand, the process of development itself may damage the environment, if not properly managed. in the final analysis, removal of poverty, generation of employment, raising the levels of education and increasing awareness of the people are crucial for protection of environment.

4.2 MAJOR TASKS

The major tasks for meeting this challenge are:

1. To protect the natural environment:

2. To regenerate and restore degraded ecosystems and increase their productivity and to generate employment through these activities;

3. To decentralise control over nature and natural resources;

4. To develop and share an understanding of nature and natural processes;

5. To formulate a national policy for environment and an appropriate institutional and legal framework in support of the policy;

6. To ensure co-ordinated and integrated Governmental action aimed at conserving nature and sustainable use of natural resources;

7. To make individuals and institutions more accountable to the people for their actions impinging on environment and ecosystem; and

8. To monitor the state of environment. These tasks are not independent of each other, but complementary and sometimes overlapping. Many of them are already being performd by the Central and State Governments. However, much greater effort is called for, if the current trend of environmental degradation is to be reversed.

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4.2.1 Protection of Natural Environment

It is a primary task of the Government to protect all natural ecosys- tems from degradation by having comprehensive strategies of protec- tion, appropriate for different areas, geographical regions, ecologi- cal and social systems. Areas need to be classified not only on the basis of their ecological characteristics, including fragility, but also in terms of the types and severity of threats they face, the source and cause of these threats and the level of protection they warrant.

Broadly, threats to natural environment are of three type: pollution, over-use and destruction. Strategies to meet these threats to natural environment can be preventive or regulatory.

The strategy of prevention consists of raising public awareness, strict enforcement of laws, statutory assessment of environmental impact of projects and efforts to regenerate the productivity of ecosystems. The raising of public awareness is effective in some cases to refrain people from harmful activities, if they are convinced of the dangers. Strict laws, rigorously implemented, can prevent environ- mental destruction through stringent punitive measures, including fiscal, making an undesirable action very expensive for the offender. However, the effectiveness of the principle of 'Polluter Pays' is Limited by the sensitiveness of the people to the socio-economic problem. Statutory environmental impact assessment of all projects and activities before their implementation prevents degradation through obligation on the executing agencies to undertake compensatory meas- ures. Destruction can also be prevented by regenerating nature and increasing the productivity of the ecosystems.

The strategy of regulation is best applicable where activities have started or projects have come up. It requires that:

(i) a detailed report should be prepared identifying the sources of pollution by the project or activity and indicating, in a realistic and time-bound manner, the measures required to be taken;

(ii) a similar report should be prepared about domestic and agricul- tural pollution, especially form pesticides, locating sources and suggesting remedial measures;

(iii) functioning of the Central and State Pollution Control Boards should be strengthened and be made more open;

(iv) comprehensive and realistic standards should be formulated for environmental pollution, and for procedures and standards for assess- ing environmental damage;

(v) industries should be made to recognise, if necessary by a dialogue with the Government, the cost on economy of environmental effects and be persuaded to show greater leadership and responsibility by control- ling pollution ab initio through built in measures;

(vi) public participation and involvement of NGOs in prevention and control of pollution and environmental degradation should be facili- tated by providing necessary technical help, through designated insti- tutions, obliged to provide information and technical advice, and by the Central, State and Local governments setting up appropriate ma- chinery for speedy response to investigation and disposal of public complaints;

(vii) for encouraging public vigilance, incentives should be offered for reporting instances of violation of laws relating to pollution, forests, wildlife and other environmental issues, and

(viii) the regulatory functions of he Government should be decentra- lised, especially in relation to pollution with essential training and equipment being provided to representatives of communities.

The Eighth Plan will convert the Ganga Action Plan into a proposed National River Action Plan. Establishment of common effluent treatment plants will be assisted so that small and medium industries can have their wastes treated and effect waste recovery in an economically viable manner. National parks and sanctuaries

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will be further strengthened. Stress will also be laid on eco- development, especially around protected areas, so that the human population in these areas is not deprived of the basic life support resources and continue to participate in the protection of the environment.

4.2.2 Regeneration and Restoration of Degraded Ecosystems

Today, much of nature in the country lies ravaged. Such degradation not only impoverishes the poor further but also effect the ability of the environment to remain productive. It is, therefore, crucial to regenerate the ecosystem and it is imperative that the persons degrad- ing the environment should be made, by law, to regenerate and to restore the areas degraded by them.

Programmes for regeneration and restoration of ecosystem can also provide productive employment to a large section of rural people. Creation of jobs for ecological restoration has relatively few re- quirements and with marginal investment can yield substantial returns. There are huge areas of degraded land (above 100 million hectares as detailed in tables 4.1 and 4.2) which could be reclaimed. Apart from wages, little other input is required, especially f the work is orga- nised by the local communities themselves on cooperative basis. Most of the land needs only basic water and soil conservation measures and some amount of plantation and protection work. Appropriate degraded land, pressure on the remaining land, forests and pastures will also be reduced. Similar activities could be designed to restore, in an integrated manner, other natural areas.

In view of the importance of regeneration and restoration and National Wastelands Development Board has included regeneration of degraded forest lands as a part of its objectives and given special thrust to promotion of integrated wasteland development.

4.2.3 Decentralisation

No Government can protect, regenerate and ensure sustainable use of natural resources on its own. It is essential, therefore, to decentra- lise control over nature resources. Decentralisation, in this context, means transfer of control from the government to the people collec- tively. An instance of this is the social forestry programme. For collective control, it is important that conditions should be created for effective management through creation of appropriate local bodies and institutional structure. The people must also have access to information and professional knowledge and must be able to call upon technical bodies for advice and support. Such an approach is even more necessary in the case of tribals and other communities who are tradi- tionally dependent on natural produce.

A major initiative in decentralising power would be to enable the villagers to decide for themselves their own priorities and to take up activities accordingly. Research activities would also be reoriented to become more appropriate for the needs of local inhabitants.

4.2.4 Development and Sharing of an Understanding of Nature and Natural Processes

Of late, professional bodies have become more isolated and distanced from the people. consequently, advances in scientific understanding of nature and natural processes have not been shared or developed in partnership with the people, especially the rural and tribal communi- ties who have their own traditional wisdom on these matters. Hence, the enrichment that would have followed from synthesis of these two streams of knowledge did not take place.

Thus, current research, training and awareness programmes need to be reviewed for their content and methodology. Research areas must be selected with care. The thrust of research activities within the Ministry of Environment and forests, the ICAR, the CSIR and Universi- ties and other associated research institutes, has to be redirected primarily to specific social, managerial and scientific issues rele- vant to grassroot reality.

Environmental training and education of professionals and administra- tors is crucial to the establishment of an environment-friendly social system. The pursuit of economic development without being socially and

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environmentally destructive would be and important content of such training programmes.

4.2.5 Formulation of Policies and laws

An important task before the Government is the formulation of a com- prehensive national policy on nature and natural resources. To be effective it must be evolved in consultation with the people. The policy must also spell out the position regarding environmental needs of the society in general and the rights of the weaker sections such as, tribals, nomads, women and children, especially in terms of giving access to and control over natural resources, in particular.

4.2.6 Ensuring Co-ordinated Governmental Action

The task of ensuring co-ordinated Governmental action involves the formulation of a natural resource policy for sustainable development. Irrigation, energy, agriculture and rural development are some of the areas requiring such coordinated action.

Integrated action for irrigation will need a strategy to achieve optimally the irrigation targets by minimising ecological damage, development of appropriate technologies for reducing situation of dams, promotion of afforestation, conservation of water and research in alternate water harvesting technologies.

For energy, the action points will be conservation, development of mini-hydel generation capacities and environmental management of thermal, hydro and other energy programmes.

The action points for agriculture and rural development will include minimising the use of harmful pesticides and fertilisers, biological control of pests, adoption of ecologically regenerative land and water use. Simultaneously, low input, organic agricultural practices espe- cially in arid zones require to be developed. Environmentally sound rural development programmes need to be designed and pursued.

In industry, integrated action would be needed for prevention and control of pollution hazards, suitable location of industrial units, recycling of industrial wastes and adoption of energy efficient tech- nology.

4.2.7 Making individuals and Institutions more accountable

Concerted efforts must be made to internalise environment related costs and benefits into the calculus of viability. This calls for development of suitable methodology for quantifying environmental costs and benefits. The 'business as usual' approach which has so far treated them as qualitative externalities must be discontinued.

4.2.8 Monitoring the Environment

The critical condition of natural environment demands that a system should be set up for constant monitoring parameters. This is a respon- sibility of Government institutions and departments, though an active role should also be assigned to people's organisations at the grass- root level. Since quick preventive action may often be necessary, the monitoring machinery must be comprehensive, have access to critical information, be regular in its assigned role and have the capacity to enforce strict adherence to the norms.

4.3 REVIEW OF THE SEVENTH FIVE YEAR PLAN

The Seventh Plan saw significant progress in environment and ecology, Ganga action plan, forestry and wildlife, wastelands development and island development subsectors.

4.3.1 Environment and Ecology

Major activities undertaken by the Central Pollution control Board relate to development of laboratories and management and operation of national air and water quality network, controlling pollution at source, river basin studies and evolution and implementation of nation standards. Programmes on waste recycling, prevention of

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coastal pollution and schemes concerning pollution were initiated in the Seventh Plan.

The Central and State Pollution Control Boards have been implementing laws on pollution control regarding water and air. Fourteen river basins of the country are being monitored for water pollution. Two hundred water quality monitoring stations, 85 air quality monitoring station and 173 coastal monitoring stations have been established. Standards have been notified for 26 priority industries. More than 50% of the major and medium industries have installed pollution treatment plants. Central assistance is being extended to the State Environment Departments and the State Pollution Control Boards for strengthening their technical set up.

Environmental impact assessment of major river valley and hydro-elec- tric, mining industrial and thermal power projects were carried out through Environmental Appraisal Committees. All major development projects are subjected to this assessment prior to clearance with or without conditions. The impact assessment procedures have been stream- lined by devising a single window machinery for speedy environmental and forest clearance. In all, 1464 development projects were appraised during 1985-90, in the areas of river valley, mining, thermal power, industries and others.

The Botanical and the Zoological Surveys of India (BSI and ZSI) were restructured and their objectives redefined for a proper orientation towards ecology and conservation. The major activities of BSI have been the compilation of national and state flora and publication of Red Data Book, survey of plant resources and endangered species and studies on taxonomical, ethnobotanical and geobotanical aspects. The ZSI undertook exploration and survey of faunal resources, augmentation of national zoological collections, status survey of endangered spe- cies, taxonomic studies and publication of fauna of India. Construc- tion of a Marine Aquarium-cum-Research Centre at Digha in West Bengal is nearing completion.

Seven Biosphere Reserves have been set up for preserving the genetic diversity in representative ecosystems. Ecological restoration work has been undertaken in fragile areas. Schemes have been initiated on captive breading of plants and commercial utilisation of medicinal plants. The Doon Valley Board has been ensuring integrated development of ecologically fragile Doon Valley. Special attention is being given for the environmental protection of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep. a multi-departmental National Natural Resources Manage- ment System (NNRMS) has been set up. Conservation of plants and spe- cial ecosystems like mangroves and wetlands has also been taken up. Fifteen mangrove areas have been identified and status report prepared on mangroves in India. A Core committee constituted to recommend the framework and operational details of a National Conservation Strategy has given its final report.

Environmental research projects have been sponsored in the universi- ties and other institutions. Three hundred and nineteen research and development projects were sanctioned in the Seventh Plan. Centres of Excellence have been set up in different parts of the country for environmental education, ecological research, studies on mining areas and ornithology. Of these, two centres were set up during the Sixth Plan and one was established in 1986-87. The Centre of Excellence on Ornithology was set up during 1988-89. Eco-Task Forces have been deployed in up, Rajasthan and Jammu & Kashmir for ecological restora- tion and land reclamation. The Eco-Task Force in Jammu & Kashmir was created in 1988-89. Eco-development camps were supported for creating awareness through participation in the practical activities of eco- development by Non-governmental organisations. Two hundred and ninety four camps have been conducted during the Seventh Plan. The Gobind Ballabh Pant Paryavaran Evam Vikas Sansthan has been set up to study Himalayan environment and development.