Environment Support Group

Search Results for: forest policy

ESG Opinion

Modi government’s new environmental laws a threat to India’s biodiversity and forests

The seamless passage of the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill, 2021, and the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, effectively emasculating regulatory powers contained in the parent laws, namely, the Biological Diversity Act (BDA) 2002 and the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) 1980, was guaranteed by the absence of the entire opposition, which was boycotting Parliament demanding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi speak on the Manipur crisis.

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Environmental Decision MakingEnvironmental GovernanceForestIssue in FocusIssue in PerspectivePopular

Indian Environment Ministry statement in Parliament confirms Forest Conservation Act (Amendment) Bill 2023 proposed against Constitutional norms

The contents of Forest Conservation Bill 2023 leave no room for doubt that its core purpose is to advance interests of extractive industries, to commercialise forests, and favour Indian and foreign corporates interested in exploiting forests, biodiversity, bioresources and associated traditional knowledge.

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AdvocacyBiodiversityCampaignsEnvironment & Forest Policy

MoEF&CC must stop destroying India’s progressive environment, forest and biodiversity protection jurisprudence

At a time when the United Nations General Assembly has finally passed a resolution making Right to Clean and Healthy Environment a Human Right, Indian Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change is doing everything to destroy India’s progressive environmental jurisprudence.

We invite you to endorse a statement demanding Indian Government must step back from its proposals to comprehensively dilute India’s and devastate India’s environmental laws. And it must stop yielding to corporate pressures and instead defend our Constitutional rights over our health, environment and our futures.

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AdvocacyESG Opinion

Palm oil policy needs wider consultation

By Malvika Kaushik, ESG. The NMEO-OP intends to make India, one of the largest importers of palm oil in the world, self-reliant in edible oil production. It proposes price assurances and other economic incentives to persuade farmers to cultivate oil palm. The move is touted as essential for national economic security. Meanwhile, activists are highlighting the dangers of widespread cultivation of oil palm monocultures in the north-east and in the Andaman and Nicobar islands (ANI). There are two key threats. The first is the destruction of fragile ecosystems in these biodiversity hotspots. In the north-east, the diversion of land cultivated under shifting agriculture or jhum could also be an issue. Jhum entails rotation between cultivation and regeneration in different patches of land. It seems to support more biodiversity than monoculture plantations.

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AdvocacyEnvironment & Forest PolicyOther Reports & DocumentsResources

Need for meaningful extensive review and debate on fundamental changes proposed to India’s Environment Protection Act, 1986 and related laws 

India’s environmental jurisprudence has been torn between the competing demands of prioritising environmental protection and securing economic progress.  While there are several judgements that speak to the need for balancing development with environmental priorities, it is not necessarily an exercise that can be easily rationalised.  There is overwhelming evidence in the pollution flowing in every river and lake across the country, in the extensive degradation across the Western Ghats and the Himalayas – resulting in catastrophic impacts on human settlements, in the breakdown of our cities every time it rains or when there is an unrelenting heat wave, and in commons that are extensively encroached, diverted and polluted, that the state of India’s environment is precariously hinged.  The damaging consequences of such extensive degradation are irreversible and will seriously impede the country’s socio-economic progress.

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Newsletter

EJ Matters Vol 3. Issue 9: Environment Ministry proposes comprehensive dilution of India’s Environmental Laws & More..

There has been systematic dilution of India’s forest and biodiversity protection laws for several years now.   But the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change now proposes to fundamentally change the essential characteristic of India’s environmental jurisprudence with fundamental changes that it proposes to India’s umbrella environmental law, the Environment Protection Act, 1986, and also the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991. 

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AdvocacyEnvironment & Forest PolicyEnvironmental GovernanceESG Opinion

Fundamental dilution of Environmental Laws and Jurisprudence of India Proposed

The current proposed amendments to four major environmental laws, are effectively a big step away from India’s long held statutory tradition of protecting environmental and natural resources and is a clear indicator of prevailing priority: putting business and commercial interest over environmental protection and safeguarding human rights.  The draft Bills were put out on 1st July 2022 by the Ministry in English, not any of the other Scheduled languages, and the commenting period ends on 21st July 2022.  Never in the history of India has there ever been such a rush to put interests of international and national business empires over that of peoples of India and its biodiversity.   

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Efficacy of Ward Committees in BengaluruESG Workshop ReportsResearch

All The Presentations And Report Of The Workshop “Roles And Responsibilities Of The Ward Committees For A Cleaner, Greener And Safer Bengaluru” Organised By ESG Dated 22.5.2014 At RICM, Bangalore

22 May 2014 Downloads: Relevant Urban Policies_ppt_English_Shashikala Iyer Relevant Urban Policies_ppt_Kannada_Shashikala Iyer Roles & Responsibilities of Ward Committees_ppt_English_Bhargavi S Rao

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NewsletterPopular

Highlights of 2023!  

As another year comes to an end, it is only appropriate to look back and reflect on all that has happened this past eventful year. 2023 has been a special year for ESG as it marks 25 years of the organisation’s efforts in securing environmental and social justice for all! ESG has worked with a range of marginalised and vulnerable groups across India in the past 25 years, and has been in the forefront of struggles to secure voiceless ecosystems from ruin. 

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