Nature in peril

Business Standard 14th July 2020 Save

Context: The steady dilution of environmental scrutiny in recent times will result in immediate problems like worsening air quality and resource deterioration. A holistic approach to economic growth should include environmental care.

Challenges to Environmental Conservation in India:

Facts: India ranked 168 out of 180 in the Yale University’s Environment Performance Index 2020.

Dilution of laws:

The EIA puts projects into two categories:
Category A: Subjected to scrutiny and approval by the Central Government;
Category B: where the responsibility rests with the state governments.

The provisions of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification of 2006 provides discretion to the states in deciding the criteria for placing projects in two categories:

Category B1: which require prior scrutiny;
Category B2: that only requires a filing of impact assessment.

The recent revision includes a proposal to give post-facto approval to projects that evaded and violated EIA guidelines.

False perception about Environment: being a hindrance to growth.

Growth is not just expansion in the availability of produced goods and services.
An increase in wealth also includes human capital and natural capital.
Public Consultation Avoided: Affected people have not been able to represent themselves amidst pandemic which has led to the domination of bureaucratic procedures.

For E.g. transformation of the National Wildlife Board into a bureaucrat-dominated rubber stamp that has approved practically all industrial projects.
The Forest Conservation Act has been bypassed to allow railway lines and other projects through protected areas.

Businesses seeking quick profits: Environmental scrutiny is being bypassed since many businesses look for short term profit generation ignoring long term sustainability.

Environment and its true relationship with Economics: Pointed by Green National Account’s in India: A Framework, a report prepared under National Statistical Commission.

Economic evaluation based on a conception of good: without a conception of the good we wouldn’t know what data we should seek to study.

Comprehensive notion of wealth includes:

Reproducible capital: or manufactured capital: roads, ports, buildings and equipment.

Human capital: population size and composition, health and education.

Natural Capital: Ecosystems, land, and subsoil resources.

Present Discounted Value (PDV) of the flow of social profits is positive only when there is an increase in wealth.
Leaving the forest unmolested would be to invest in it.

Way Forward:

Fostering businesses having long term sustainable vision: Taking environment, not as a hindrance but facilitator to economic development:

- - Any rational business has a long-term vision of its viability and conserving resources minimize their adverse impact on the environment and businesses too.
  - This will lead to businesses being more sensitive to environmental challenges rather than short term election-oriented government.