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India: Environmental Issues
India was the first country to insert an amendment into its Constitution allowing the State to protect and improve the environment for safeguarding public health, forests and wild life. The 42nd amendment was adopted in 1976 and went into effect January 3, 1977. The language of the Directive Principles of State Policy (Article 47) requires not only a protectionist stance by the state but also compels the state to seek the improvement of polluted environments. This allows the government to impose restrictions on potentially harmful entities such as polluting industries.
An important subtlety of the directive's language is the provision that the article "shall not be enforceable by any court, but it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws." This allows the directive to be an instrument of guidance for the government, while at the same time, since no law has been passed, no individual can violate existing law.
The Indian Forest Act was a product of British rule in 1927. The legislation granted the government uncontested rights over natural resources, with state governments authorized to grant licenses to lumber contractors and oversee protection of the forests. Even at this early stage, awareness of man's destructive tendencies was emerging.
The Factory Act also addressed public safety and health issues. Section 12 of the Act empowered each state government to legislate its own rules and throughout the 1950's and 1960's individual states framed their own versions of the bill. The legislation addresses the discharge of water and effluents by factories, calling for effective arrangements for disposal at the plant-level. As in the Indian Penal Code, penalties have been provided.
The government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985 created the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). MoEF was more comprehensive and institutionalized, and had a Union Minister and Minister of State, two political positions answering directly to the Prime Minister. The agency was comprised of 18 divisions, and two independent units, the Ganga Project Directorate and the National Mission on Wastelands Development. It continued the same functions that DOE originally had, such as monitoring and enforcement, conducting environmental assessments and surveys, but also did promotional work about the environment.
The MoEF's implementation of a monitoring system was also aggressive. In 1977, India had 18 monitoring stations for water. By 1992, there were 480 water stations, including 51 from the Global Environmental Monitoring System (GEMS). In 1984, the country had 28 air monitoring stations in seven cities. By 1994, the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Program had 290 stations in 99 cities.
During the intervening years, other laws have been passed to address specific issues, including The Wild Life Protection Act, and The Atomic Energy Act.
In December, 1993, the MoEF completed its Environmental Action Plan to integrate environmental considerations into developmental strategies, which, among other priorities, included industrial pollution reduction.
The MoEF also decided to shift from concentration to load-based standards. This would add to a polluter's costs and remove incentives to dilute effluents by adding water, and strengthen incentives for adoption of cleaner technologies. It also issued water consumption standards, which were an additional charge for excessive water use.
Targeting small scale industries has been an important task as well since these facilities greatly add to the pollution load. The Ministry provides technical assistance and limited grants to promote central effluent treatment plants. It has also created industrial zones to encourage clusters of similar industries in order to help reduce the cost of providing utilities and environmental services.
WATER POLLUTION ACT OF 1974
The legislation establishes both a Central Pollution Control Board, and State Pollution Control Boards for Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tripura and West Bengal, as well as the Union Territories. Each board, Central or state, consists of a chairman and five members, with agriculture, fisheries and government-owned industry all having representation.
Some of the main responsibilities of the Central Board, pursuant to promoting cleanliness and pollution abatement of streams and wells, include: coordinating activities of state boards and resolving disputes among them; providing technical assistance; conducting investigations; opening laboratories for analysis of samples; establishing fees for different types of sample testing; researching issues and problems; training personnel; conducting media and public awareness campaigns; collecting and disseminating data on water pollution; and working with state boards to set standards by stream or well.
The legislation also sets out specific penalties (prison sentences and fines) for violations of the Act. For example, anyone destroying board property, preventing a board employee from performing his or her duties, knowingly providing false information to the board, tampering with monitoring devices installed by the board can be imprisoned up to three months, or fined as much as Rs. 10,000, or both. More serious violations of the law can incur stiffer penalties, some as high as seven years of imprisonment or Rs. 5,000 per day fines.
THE WATER (PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF POLLUTION) CESS ACT OF 1977 provided the Central and state boards with the authority to levy and collect a tax on industries using water. The measure's jurisdiction included all states, with the exception of Jammu and Kashmir. The tax is calculated on the basis of how much water consumed. During the debate of the bill, at question was whether, in the absence of any specific mention of a tax on water consumption in either the state or concurrent lists, the Parliament could exercise its residual powers. The High Court ruled it could because "Parliament had the exclusive power to make any law with respect of any matter not mentioned in the State List."
THE AIR (PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF POLLUTION) ACT OF 1981 was the next area of focus following the passage of the Water Act. The legislation designated the Central Board and state boards, which governed water pollution duties, to also be empowered with the same authority and administrative functions for the Air Act. In essentially all respects, the functions and authorizations exercised by central and state officials in the Water Act remain the same. The Central Board sets national ambient air standards. In addition, the state boards have the power to petition local magistrates to restrain polluters from exceeding specified standards. This legislation, however, does not supersede provisions of an earlier law, the Atomic Energy Act of 1962, which addressed radioactive air pollution.
In 1986, following the tragedy of Bhopal, Parliament was motivated to address all environmental pollutants. In about six months, with only casual resistance from powerful industry and business interests, the government enacted THE ENVIRONMENT (PROTECTION) ACT. Under this measure, the central government has responsibility for deciding standards, restricting industrial sites, laying down procedures and safeguards for accident prevention and handling of hazardous waste, oversight of investigations and research on pollution issues, on-site inspections, establishment of laboratories, and collection and dissemination of information. Samples collected by central government officials can be admissible in court.
The legislation had another interesting component. For the first time, private citizens were given the right to file cases against non-complying factories. A private citizen may file a complaint, however, only after giving notice of at least 60 days to the concerned authority of his/her intentions to file. One of the chief criticisms of the Water Act was its prohibition of the public from taking litigation against polluters. As a result, individual state boards were simply overburdened.
THE POLLUTION CONTROL BOARDS
The Central Pollution Control Board
The Central Board serves as the national board, with oversight powers over the various state boards. It is also the ruling body for the Union Territories. The Board was legislated into existence in 1977, following the implementation of the Water Act. However, by 1987, only 20 of 25 states had ratified the original measure and constituted their own state boards.
Funding from the central government has increased steadily since the Board's inception in 1977. By 1987,
its budget had increased more than ten-fold from its original allocation of Rs. 2 million to Rs. 21.2 million. At that time, most of the Board's expenditures were targeted toward inter-state monitoring, basin and sub-basin studies, comprehensive industry documentation and air pollution control. Administrative expenses accounted for Rs. 5.63 million in 1987-88. Litigation costs rose from Rs. 30,000 in 1984-85 to Rs. 89,000 in 1987-88.
The Board may prosecute polluting industries under Section 33 (apprehension of pollution) and Section 44 (violation of conditions of consent order) in the Water Act. Through its first ten years in operation, the Board's efforts at litigation were lethargic as it filed only 181 cases, and eventually dropped charges in 16 of those. For most of those years, only a few cases were filed annually. 104 cases were filed in 1986-87, marking a change in the Board's enforcement strategy.
In addition to identifying critical manufacturing sectors, the Board went on to determine which geographical locations had been most affected by industrial pollution. It identified 13 extremely polluted waterways. They were the Sabarmati, Subernarekha, Godavari, Krishna, Indus and its tributaries, Sutlej, Ganga and its tributaries, Yamuna, Hindon, Chambal, Damodar, Gomati and Kali. Following consultations with the state boards, 22 critically polluted areas around the country were also identified. They were: Vapi in Gujarat; Singrauli in Uttar Pradesh; Korba, Ratlam, and Nagoda in Madhya Pradesh; Digboi in Assam; Talcher in Orissa; Bhadravati in Karnataka; Howrah in West Bengal; Dhanbad in Bihar; Pali and Jodhpur in Rajasthan; Manali and North Arcot in Tamil Nadu; Visakhapatnam and Pataucheru in Andhra Pradesh; Chembur in Maharashtra; Najafgarh in Delhi; Govindhgarh in Punjab; Udyog Mandal in Kerala; and Parwanoo and Kala Amb in Himachel Pradesh. All these sites and rivers were targeted for short-term emergency programs.
The central government has made progress in building common effluent treatment plants with the Bank's help. Tax breaks and subsidies can finance up to 25% of capital costs. 150 plants so far are participating. For its part, the Bank will make $160 million available through the Industrial Development Bank of India. Seven treatment plants are now set to go, and 20 more are expected to begin operations by the end of 1996.
The cost of India's water pollution problems has been staggering. In 1982, the National Engineering and Research Institute estimated 70% of the nation's water was polluted, and 73 million workdays at a cost of Rs. 60 million were lost to health-related illnesses.
Air pollution
Industrialization and urbanization have resulted in a profound deterioration of India's air quality. Of the 3 million premature deaths in the world that occur each year due to outdoor and indoor air pollution, the highest number are assessed to occur in India. According to the World Health Organization, the capital city of New Delhi is one of the top ten most polluted cities in the world. Surveys indicate that in New Delhi the incidence of respiratory diseases due to air pollution is about 12 times the national average. According to another study, while India's gross domestic product has increased 2.5 times over the past two decades, vehicular pollution has increased eight times, while pollution from industries has quadrupled.
Sources of air pollution, India's most severe environmental problem, come in several forms, including vehicular emissions and untreated industrial smoke. Apart from rapid industrialization, urbanization has resulted in the emergence of industrial centers without a corresponding growth in civic amenities and pollution control mechanisms.
Regulatory reforms aimed at improving the air pollution problem in cities such as New Delhi have been quite difficult to implement, however. For example, India's Supreme Court recently lifted a ruling that it imposed two years ago which required all public transport vehicles in New Dehli to switch to compressed natural gas (CNG) engines by April 1, 2001. This ruling, however, led to the disappearance of some 15,000 taxis and 10,000 buses from the city, creating public protests, riots, and widespread "commuter chaos." The court was similarly unsuccessful last year, when it attempted to ban all public vehicles that were more than 15 years old and ordered the introduction of unleaded gasoline and CNG.
India's high concentration of pollution is not due to a lack of effort in building a sound environmental legal regime, but rather to a lack of enforcement at the local level. Efforts are currently underway to change this as new specifications are being adopted for auto emissions, which currently account for approximately 70% of air pollution. In the absence of coordinated government efforts, including stricter enforcement, this figure is likely to rise in the coming years due to the sheer increase in vehicle ownership.
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