The Centre of Environment and Law, NUALS in partnership with Enviro-Legal Defence Firm conducted a National Workshop on 24th September 2016. The Inaugural ceremony graced by the presence of Dr. Brandson Corrie, I.F.S., PCCF & HoFF, Kerala Forest Department along with Prof. Dr. P. Leelakrishnan saw the release of the Manual on Deciphering the Enviro-Legal Clearance Processes in India prepared by CEL and ELDF .
The workshop consisted of two technical sessions with two speakers each. The first speaker of the day Shri C R Bijoy spoke on ‘Forest Clearances under Forest Conservation Act and the Forest Rights Act’. He dealt extensively with the T.N. Godavarman case and implementation aspects of the Forest Conservation Act 1980. He reminded that the word ‘forest’ was defined for the first time by Justice Radhakrishnan in 1996. Further, in 1999 the formalisation of the compensatory afforestation was underway. He also threw light on the Central Empowered Committee which monitors the implementation of apex courts orders and gave special emphasis to the Vedanta case. He then moved onto the Forest Rights Act 2006 which is considered to be a complete departure from the colonial legacy in forest governance. However, he pointed out that only 17 states have begun implementing FRA. He concluded by touching upon Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority Act 2006, a new act in the field of environment law.
The second speaker of the session, Shri Om Prakash Kaler spoke on the topic ‘Obtaining Wildlife Clearances for non-forest activities in Protected Areas’. He initially dealt with the two types of clearances within protected areas and eco-sensitive zone. He spoke at length about the human-wildlife balance of nature and opined that it’s better to keep wildlife and human separate to some extent. He also emphasized that tribals should not be moved until a sufficient compensation is paid. This was followed by an interactive question and answer session wherein participants were given ample opportunities to clarify doubts, if any.
The second technical session started with Shri Harish Vasudevan who spoke on the ‘Clearances under the Environmental Protection Act, 1980 and Environment Impact Assessment’. He stressed on the law, practice and procedure of EIA. He traced the roots of the EIA back to the Rio Convention 1992. EIA notification application extends to the whole of India, not just eco-sensitive zones (ESZ). He detailed out the 4 steps while conducting an EIA namely ascertaining the scope of the project, screening the feasibility of the project, public consultation seeking impacts on EIA and Ministry appraisal. He clarified that clearances are to be granted prior to the project and not ex post facto. He threw light on the authorities involved in granting the environmental clearance. He also touched upon the Wetland Rules, 2010 which was inspired from the Ramsar Convention.
The last speaker of the day Ms Shyama Kuriakose spoke about ‘Compliances in coastal areas, wetlands and for extraction of groundwater and biological resources’. She started with the CRZ Notification and the classification of areas under it. Amongst the categories, she spoke at length about the permitted regulated and prohibited activities. She pointed out the special relevance of CRZ 4 areas to a coastal state like Kerala. She also explained the permission required under Kerala Groundwater (Control and Regulation) Act 2002 for extracting groundwater and dealt briefly with the Water Cess Act, 1977. She noted that although the Biological Diversity Act was implemented in 2002, its relevance is being highlighted upon only since the past few years. It talks about the sustainable use, access and benefit sharing. She drew attention to the definition of Biological Resource with emphasis on the debate on coal not being a Biological Resource. The session concluded with another interactive round of questions.