Page 1 - Discussion Paper - Restructuring the Environmental Governance Architecture for India
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DISCUSSION PAPERT E R I P o l i c y B r i e f OCTOBER 2017

The Energy and Resources Institute

Restructuring the
Environmental Governance
Architecture for India

Authors SUMMARY
Mr S Vijay Kumar, Distinguished Fellow, TERI
Ms Nidhi Srivastava, Consultant,TERI The Discussion Paper examines the current architecture of the main environment-
related legislations, namely the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; Forest
With contribution from: (Conservation) Act, 1980;TheWild Life (Protection) Act, 1972;TheWater (Prevention
Mr R K Bansal, Former CEO, Sustainable and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974; andThe Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution)
Mining Initiative Act, 1981, in the context of the Constitutional provisions and the evolution of
approaches to better environmental management, including those emanating
Reviewers from international conventions. The Discussion Paper concludes that the current
Dr Prodipto Ghosh, Distinguished Fellow, TERI approach has been unnecessarily and inappropriately centralizing in character
Dr Suneel Pandey, Director, TERI and that is the main reason why the legislations have failed in achieving their
Dr Ritu Mathur, Director, TERI stated aims and objectives.
Ms Divya Datt, Associate Director, TERI
In the context of forest-related issues, the Paper recommends the following:

ƒƒ The more balanced and federal structure of the Wildlife (Protection) Act (after
its amendment in 2002) should be used as an example to amend the Forest
(Conservation [FC]) Act, create National and State Forest Conservation Boards,
and make them more effective in achieving their objective.

ƒƒ Provisions regarding levy of Net Present Value (NPV) and Compensatory
Afforestation (CA) charges and their management and application and
other guidelines issued pursuant to Supreme Court directions should be
appropriately built into the FC Act rather than into a separate legislation (such
as the recently enacted Compensatory Afforestation Act) and the National and
State Forest Conservation Boards should manage the Funds for compensatory
afforestation activities.

ƒƒ The National and State Forest Boards and Wildlife Boards should be declared
to be “Authorities” under the Environment (Protection) Act for the purposes
of forest and wildlife conservation, and to enable coordination with impact
assessment, identification of“go, no-go”areas, cumulative and regional impact
assessments, etc.

The Paper recommends that where environmental issues are concerned:

ƒƒ There is need for a single overarching legislation covering water, air, etc., for
purposes of protection and improving the environment. The Air (Prevention
and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, also enacted under article 253, rather than
the current EP Act would be a more appropriate starting point in so far as
institutional structures and mechanisms are concerned, since it better reflects
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