Govt’s ‘global talk’ on environment at odds with ‘local walk’: Congress

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, September 10

Describing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements on environment made at the G20 and other global summits as “sheer hypocrisy”, Congress on Sunday accused Modi of “destroying protections for India’s forests and biodiversity, and diluting the rights of Adivasis and forest-dwelling communities”.

“The ‘Global Talk’ is completely at odds from the ‘Local Walk’”, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a statement.

The PM’s statements at the G20 and other summits globally are sheer hypocrisy. While destroying protections for India’s forests and biodiversity, and diluting the rights of Adivasis and forest-dwelling communities, he talks of environment, climate action and equity. Our statement… pic.twitter.com/JPGonG9oA7

— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) September 10, 2023

Congress alleged that the PM’s cronies have set their eyes on exploiting India’s rich and biodiverse forests. “They want to clear the Northeast’s rich biodiverse forests to set up palm oil plantations and deforest Central India’s hills and forests, including those considered sacred by Adivasi communities, to commence mining,” Ramesh alleged.

Ramesh said that in contrast to the PM’s claims of biodiversity conservation at the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Meet, the Biological Diversity (Amendment) Act of 2023 passed by the government recently saw massive dilution of the original 2002 law.

“The 2023 Act does away with any criminal offence provisions, allowing those who destroy biodiversity and engage in biopiracy to get away scot-free. The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), formerly an independent body with the powers to act as a check and balance, has been completely put under the control of the Environment Ministry,” Ramesh said. Through various exemptions from benefit-sharing provisions, the law disadvantages those with traditional knowledge of biodiversity in favour of those who exploit it commercially, Ramesh said.

The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act of 2023 will be disastrous for the Adivasi and other forest-dwelling communities in India, as it undermines the Forest Rights Act of 2006. It does away with provisions for the consent of local communities and requirements for forest clearance in vast areas. The National Commission on Scheduled Tribes raised objections to this in 2022. Tribal communities in the Northeast are particularly vulnerable, as this Act will strip protections from forests within 100km of the nation’s borders. Mizoram has passed a resolution in the Assembly opposing the Act and Nagaland is soon expected to do the same, Ramesh said.

Ramesh said as per a report from the Vidhi Center for Legal Policy, the Modi Government used the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic to pass 39 amendments to rules under the Environment Protection Act to relax the existing environmental protections.

The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) of the Supreme Court (SC) has now been swallowed up by the Modi Government, he said.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has been consistently weakened since 2014. Vacancies have been left open for years, reaching 70 per cent overall in 2018 and leading to the shutdown of the Chennai NGT bench. The Madras HC had to step in in 2019 and instruct the Union Government to fill vacancies. Bureaucrats, rather than scientific experts, are being appointed to key posts, Ramesh said.