(IN): Can Jairam Ramesh tackle the bull by its horns?

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Can Jairam Ramesh tackle the bull by its horns?

Bahar Dutt

 

 

Winds of change are sweeping across the dusty corridors of the once quiet

Ministry of Environment and Forests. For ten years this Ministry has been

with the DMK - but election 2009 changed it all. Now speculation is rife on

whether the environment will be better protected in the hands of a Congress

minister? Can minister Jairam Ramesh bring back the golden period in India's

environmental history when Indira Gandhi with one phone call could halt a

dam being constructed in Silent Valley, or where the first family took pride

and personal interest in saving India 's big cats.

 

But the Congress of the 80's is very different from the Congress of 2009, in

which minister Jairam Ramesh has been given the green mandate. In order to

maintain a growth rate of 8-9% it is India's forests, mineral and water

resources that are facing an unprecedented onslaught. And in recent years

the MoEF has earned the dubious record of being the 'Ministry of Environment

and Forest Clearance'. In a short span of 2004 to 2006 India lost over 25000

sq km. of dense forest to industrial and development projects. A ministry

which is supposed to be the watchdog of a natural treasury of 67 million

hectares of forest and over 15,000 species of wild plants and animals has

been clearing projects with virtually little or no opposition.

 

Shaking a ministry after years of lethargy will be the biggest challenge for

the new minister. And shaking his own legacy even bigger. The minister

belongs to the school of liberalisation and economic reforms. The same

reforms, which may have put India on the super economic highway but with

losses, that are unaccounted for. Coal mines in tiger reserves and elephant

habitats, roads bifurcating national parks and mega dams submerging prime

tropical forests worth millions of dollars. India's forests and those who

live close to them are perhaps paying the heaviest price for the nation's

progress as a superpower. Little wonder then that when Jairam Ramesh, took

over the environment ministry, the green lobby has been sceptical about his

commitment to the green cause.

 

But the minister has taken his new role seriously. Since he has taken over

he has called for a review of several projects, initiated a number of policy

announcements, visits to institutions like the Wildlife Institute,

interacting with scientists, and synergising the work of thirty tiger

reserves across the country. He is also a minister with new ideas. Plans are

now afoot to introduce the National Green Tribunal, a single judicial body

to decide on all matters relating to the environment. With this, the

functioning of two existing bodies - the National Environment Appellate

Authority and the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court could be

impacted. While the dissolution of the former is good, the latter may not

be.

 

The National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) -- the only judicial

body in the country to hear grievances against environment clearance process

-- has the dubious record of dismissing all but one petition in the last 12

years. According to an RTI filed by Delhi-based environment lawyer Ritwick

Dutta - no site visits have been made by any members of the NEAA except to

places of religious interest -- Shirdi and Varanasi. And none of these

religious trips had anything to do with the cases being heard by the NEAA.

 

In contrast the other quasi-judicial body, which may also become a victim of

the National Green Tribunal is the Central Empowered Committee of the

Supreme Court, which looks into all matters related to diversion of forests

for non-forest activities. With a motley group of forest officers and

bureaucrats this is perhaps the only body that has taken its role of a

watchdog of India's forests very seriously -- sometimes much to the chagrin

of state governments and mining companies. Will the CEC too be dissolved

once the National Green Tribunal is set up? It is perhaps this body that the

Minister may need to save - if he is serious about his role of protecting

India's forests.

 

Trouble for the new minister may arise from traditionally unknown quarters

-- his own government. A case in point - the Niyamgiri hills, Orissa, where

India's most controversial and long drawn-out environment battle is being

fought by hundreds of indigenous tribals. Plans are afoot to chop down the

rich tropical forests of the Niyamgiri hills - for the Vedanta

bauxite-mining project. Here too, murky dealings are on. In letters accessed

through an RTI - it is clear that pressure came from the highest office in

the country - the PMO to the Ministry in 2008, on the status of forest

clearance that was pending with the MoEF. And herein lies the scam - since

the project is being developed in a Fifth Schedule Area - land acquisition

can only be undertaken by the State. In this case the land will be handed

over once acquired by state to a private company, which is Vedanta. Is it

ethical for the state to be putting pressure on its own ministry on behalf

of a private agency? The same state, which should as per the constitution be

upholding the rights of the people. Now in 2009 will there be pressure on

Ramesh too, to make sure that the process is expedited? And when pressure

comes from his own Prime Ministers Office to dispense with infrastructure

projects on forestland will he be able to continue his role as a watchdog of

India's forests?

 

The second likely source of conflict will be state governments particularly

those where the BJP is in power - Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa -

states with huge mining resources as well as forests. In 2005, the Chief

Minister of Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh wrote a letter to MoEF asking for

declaration of forest in Korba as an elephant reserve to reduce

human-elephant conflict. Three months later, a letter is written by the

Confederation of Indian Industry - requesting for area not to be declared as

elephant reserve as the area has huge coal deposits which could be

detrimental to industrial interests. Never mind that the same area has had

20 elephant deaths as the elephants compete for space with humans with their

forests gone. A far-sighted CM who wanted to protect the elephants has been

silenced by commercial interest. What will the MoEF do in such cases?

Support the CII or the BJP CM?

 

These and other such contentious issues are what Ramesh will need to bite

into - as he visits national parks and sanctuaries and poses for pictures on

an elephant in Corbett.

 

In the meanwhile, India's green activists can take heart that in the lofty

corridors of power they finally have access to a minister who is articulate,

English-speaking much like the urban elite from which India's environment

movement is drawn. Perhaps herein lies Ramesh's strength. He is a minister

who is accessible and responsive. In the days to come can this Minister take

the much-needed tough decisions which may sometime make him unpopular with

his own government and put a clear moratorium on infrastructure projects

coming up on elephant corridors and vital tiger habitats? Jairam Ramesh has

his work cut out. And the greens have much hope from the new minister.

 

*(The article first appeared in Hindustan Times edition dated August 19,

2009)*

 

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