India’s Need for Conservation of Natural Resources
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been warning for years that habitat destruction is changing the patterns of infectious diseases. This includes a growing number of zoonotic diseases- the ones that spread from animals to humans such as rabies, Nipah, Ebola, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and COVID-19.
Scientists believe that the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), which causes COVID-19, likely jumped from bats to humans via an intermediate animal host, before snowballing into a pandemic in a matter of weeks. The highly infectious disease has claimed millions of lives globally.
The chance of coming into contact with zoonotic diseases increases when humans enter biodiversity hotspots, where a large number of animal species are found.
“India is a potential hotspot for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases,” said Abi Tamim Vanak, a senior fellow at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), and a DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance fellow.
“[This is] Because we have [a] very high density of people and livestock amidst areas of high biodiversity, and potentially very high rates of interaction amongst these.”
Vanak co-leads the OneHealth and Zoonoses programme of the recently announced National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Wellbeing.
The path, for what Vanak describes as potential interaction, has been put on fast-track mode. India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has approved 2,256 of the 2,592 proposals that it received for environment clearance (EC)* between July 2014 and April 24, 2020, according to publicly available data on the ministry’s clearance monitoring website, Parivesh. This is a clearance rate of 87%.
*The Parivesh website does not show data for previous years.
Of these 2,256 approvals, 2,115 approvals had been granted until March 2020. Of these approvals, India Spend has analysed data for 2,053 project proposals; the remaining 62 project proposal details could not be analysed due to missing or vague information.
The MoEFCC granted 278 approvals for projects in and immediately around Protected Areas (PAs), according to the IndiaSpend analysis; PAs are places such as wildlife sanctuaries and national parks, where human presence is severely restricted by law.
It was unearthed this during a year-long investigation scouring data and combined it with ground reporting and expert opinion.
The MoEFCC granted the maximum number of ECs to three public-sector enterprises, IndiaSpend found in its analysis of 2,053 approved project proposals between July 2014 and March 2020, the details of which are here.
While Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) received 42 approvals, Uttarakhand’s tourism services provider Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam Limited received 21 approvals, and Coal India’s subsidiary, Western Coalfields Limited, received 16 clearances.
Three states--Maharashtra (380), Gujarat (316) and Uttar Pradesh (153)--received a majority (849) of the 2,053 ECs between July 2014 and March 2020, our analysis revealed.
Category-wise, 607 ECs went to projects classified as ‘Industrial Projects - 2’ (neither the Parivesh nor the MoEFCC websites explain what this category includes), we found. Another 435 clearances went to projects classified as ‘Infrastructure and Miscellaneous Projects + CRZ’ while 316 clearances were granted to projects classified as ‘New Construction Projects and Industrial Estates’.
Of the 278 project proposals approved in and around 672 PAs, 40 are inside the PAs while 238 are within 10 km of a PA boundary. Human activity is to be severely limited in the immediate vicinity of PA boundaries. While states are permitted to declare the extent of this buffer zone, it is recommended that it be 10 km. Data for PAs were taken from Protected Planet, a website maintained by United Nations agencies based on data provided by national governments.
Maharashtra not only received the most clearances (15) for projects in PAs, but it also got the most approvals (83) for projects within buffer zones, we found. Following Maharashtra, Gujarat (25) and Uttarakhand (21) received the most clearances for project proposals in buffer zones.
MoEFCC joint secretary Richa Sharma told that the ministry follows the due process while granting approvals. She refused to respond to specific questions about the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s environment clearance approval rate or about approvals granted for projects in PAs.
The Pressure to Develop
“My government firmly believes in the path of sustainable development. We are ensuring that development happens without harming the environment,” tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 17, 2020.
Modi’s NDA government has a poor record of caring for the environment since it came to power in 2014. Modi’s first term was punctuated by campaigns that incentivised manufacturing (Make in India) and start-ups (Startup India).
Environment Minister, Prakash Javadekar has consistently projected a business-friendly image for the MoEFCC, promising to improve the ‘ease of doing responsible business’ while bringing in faster clearances for businesses in India. Javedekar took additional charge of the ministry for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises in November 2019.
A significant tool in India’s armour to ensure that development and environment indeed go hand-in-hand is something called an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).
An EIA is the first step on the basis of which an environment clearance (or approval) is granted to any proposal to commence infrastructure, mining, processing or manufacturing undertaking. The EIA aims to red-flag potentially damaging impact on the environment of any large project proposal.
Clearances are given either by the Centre or the states depending on the scope and nature of the proposed project. Separate forest and wildlife clearances might be required based on the proposed project site.
In the early days of the COVID-19 induced lockdown in India, the Centre released a new draft of the EIA notification in March 2020. The draft seeks to allow post-facto approval of projects that have gone off the ground before acquiring an environment clearance. It also exempts certain activities, such as extraction, sourcing or borrowing of ordinary earth for linear projects such as roads and pipelines from seeking an EC. The draft also proposes to exempt activities such as dredging and desilting of dams, reservoirs, river, and canals, among other proposed dilutions.
Days later, even as the COVID-19 toll continued to mount, on April 7, 2020, Javadekar announced in a series of tweets that the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) had granted wildlife clearances for projects including highways, railways and hydroelectricity, in 11 states.
India’s GDP growth slid from 8% in 2015-16 to 7.2% in 2017-18. While India was projected to grow at 7% in 2019-20, credit rating agency Moody’s revised it to 0.2% in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
India’s projected GDP loss due to environmental degradation could be over 1.5% by 2050 if it continues on the ‘business as usual’ path i.e. high environment degradation and carbon emissions, according to a February 2020 report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Of this, loss due to changes in pollination alone is estimated to be between $0.8 and $3 billion, and up to $9.2 billion due to water scarcity for irrigation, according to the report. The world is staring not only at an environmental crisis but “heading for an economic crisis too”, the report summarises.
These estimates are based on the benefits that natural assets such as forests, coastlines and wildlife bring to humans. The report considered the economic benefits such as crop pollination, protection of coasts from flooding and erosion, availability of water, and wood and marine wealth as well as carbon storage that nature provides.
At least 1,317 bird species have been recorded in India against around 10,000 species found worldwide. Of the 1,317 species recorded in India, 72 are endemic to the country. According to an assessment of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 2018, a total of 100 species of Indian birds are classified as ‘threatened’. Of these, 17 are categorised as ‘critically endangered’, 20 as ‘endangered’, and 63 as ‘vulnerable’.
Besides these threatened species, there are several other species that are marked by sparse population size and restricted range and are generally considered rare by conservationists. The draft plan observes that it is documented that 270 species (21 percent) of Indian avifauna fall under the ‘rare’ category and these include the raptors, pheasants, bustards, hornbills, cranes, storks etc. which together are classified as Rare, Endangered and Threatened (RET) bird species.
The bulk of the increase is expected in fossil fuel, metals and minerals consumption, according to the Indian Resource Panel.
India and the European Union have agreed to work together over the next three years to adapt international standards and best practices in business and foster the efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. This partnership will focus on drawing up action plans for resource efficiency.
Ultimately, it hopes to give momentum to the policy advice that will go into the government’s broader resource efficiency strategy.
