This presentation talks about the various issues involved in environmental legislation. It talks about the drawbacks of the major environmental acts introduced and it also explains some of the remedial measures taken to rectify the drawbacks mentioned. It is useful for studying, and contain fun activities for teachers to use while teaching.

1. ISSUES INVOLVED IN ENFORCEMENT
OF ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION

2. WHAT IS ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION ?
Environmental Legislation is the collection of laws and
regulations pertaining to air quality, water quality, the
wilderness, endangered wildlife and other environmental
factors. The umbrella of environmental legislation covers
many laws and regulations, yet they work together towards
a common goal, which is regulating the interaction between
man and the natural world to reduce the threats to the
environment and increase public health.

3. THREE IMPORTANT ISSUES OF ENVIRONMENTAL
LEGISLATION
Three issues that are especially important for environmental legislation to be effective in
practise can be explained in the form of three principles:
1. The Precautionary Principle: This principle has evolved to deal with risks and
uncertainties faced by the environmental management. This principle implies that an
ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. It does not prevent problems but
helps reduce their occurrence and ensures that contingency plans are made.
2. The Polluter- Pays Principle: In addition to the obvious’ the polluter pays for the
damage caused by a development ‘. This principle implies that a polluter pays for
monitoring and policing. A problem with this approach is that fines may bankrupt small
businesses, yet be low enough for large companies to write them off as an occasional
overhead , which does little for pollution control.

4. 3. Freedom of information: Environmental management and planning is hindered if
the public, NGOs or even official bodies are unable to get information on the
requirements and conditions of the environment. Without proper knowledge about
the current situation and status of our natural resources, we are unable to formulate
policies that will enhance their
plight.
A number of laws have been enforced for safeguarding the environmental quality.
However these laws and acts could not be enacted successfully in the light of the following
problems. These issues are the various drawbacks of the initiatives taken by the
government to protect and conserve our natural resources and increase public health with
the view of sustainable development.

5. PROBLEMS INVOLVED WITH THE ENFORCEMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
1. Drawbacks of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972:
• Since this act has been enacted just as a fallout of Stockholm
Conference held in 1972 , it has not included any locally
evolved conservation measures.
• The ownership certificates for some animal articles example –
Leopard and tiger skins often serve as a tool for illegal trading.
• Jammu and Kashmir have their own wildlife acts, therefore
hunting and trading of many endangered species which are
not permitted in other states are allowed there.
• The offenders of this act are not subjected to any hash fines.
The fines are only Rs.25000 or imprisonment up to three years.

6. 2. Drawbacks of the Forest Conservation Act,1980:
• This act only transfers the powers from the state to the centre to
decide the conservation of reserve forests to non forest areas.
• The power has been centralized at the top and local communities
have been completely ignored from the decision making process
regarding the nature of forest areas.
• Tribal people living in forests are totally dependent on forest
resources. If they are stopped from exploiting forests for their
livelihood they resort to criminal activity like smuggling and killing.
• This law is concentrated on protecting trees, birds and animals but
not on protecting poor people who are dependent on forest
resources for their livelihood.
• The forest dwelling tribal communities have a rich knowledge about
forest resources, their importance and conservation. But their role
and contribution is not acknowledged.

7. 3. Drawbacks of Pollution related Acts :
• The power and the authority has been given only to the
central government with little power to the state
governments. This hinders effective implementation of the
act in the states.
• The penalties imposed by this act are very small when
compared to the damage caused by big industries due to
pollution.
• A person cannot directly file a petition in the court.
• Litigation related to the environment is very expensive since
it involves technical knowledge.
• For small industries, it is very expensive to install a custom-
made effluent treatment plant.
• The position of the Chairman of the Board of most industries
is occupied by a political appointee. Hence it becomes
difficult to implement the act without political interference.

8. Conclusion:
Despite the various shortcomings of the environmental laws in India
The government has taken various steps to conserve our biodiversity.
Some of the recent initiatives taken by the government are:
1. Public Private Partnership: Over the last three years, the emphasis
was on public private partnership(PPP) to leverage the capital,
technology and human resources available to the private sector.
This model was adopted for forest conservation.
2. Use of Technology: The information and communication has been
leveraged to a great extent for real time monitoring of pollutants
from industries, status of natural resources and wildlife and address
grievances.
3. Active International Collaboration: It includes collaborations at the
multilateral and bilateral levels for the protection of the environment.
4. Timely Amendment of rules: The policy of the environment has become
dynamic to address ever growing environmental challenges.

9. 5. Procedural Reforms: The procedural reforms were aimed
at increasing the transparency, curbing red tape in
environmental clearances and decentralization in
decision making.
6. Broad based Campaign: Previously only government
agencies were involved in spreading the awareness about
the conservation of the environment. With initiatives like
Chintin Shivir, School Nursery programmes and climate
change special express, the government could
successfully increase the participation of civil society,
school children and educational institutions in the
environmental conservation.

10. ACTIVITY TIME…

11. REVIEW QUIZ
1. What is termed as the collection of laws and regulations pertaining to
environmental factors ?
2. Which principle states that the polluter pays for monitoring and policing the
environment ?
3. Which Act has been enacted as a fallout of the Stockholm Conference ?
4. In which year was the Forest Conservation Act put into effect ?

12. GUESS THE ISSUES:-

15. CONNECTIONS QUIZ:-
Where was this movement started?

16. In which state is this dam situated ?

17. What is the name of the campaign launched by him ?

18. THANK YOU…..