Environmental Law: Protecting the Environment through Legal Means

From time immemorial, the value of nature and a clean and green environment has been emphasised. The sacred books of all faiths, as well as age-old human behaviours, have all encouraged sustainable living and moderation. Our hunger for progress and financial riches has driven us to carelessly plunder the natural resources around us, with little regard for the environment. Deforestation, water and air pollution, and overuse of natural resources have pushed us to the verge of calamity.

The term "environment" refers to the external conditions that influence the development or growth of people, animals, or plants, as well as living or working conditions and also includes Temperature, wind, electricity, and other factors all contribute to the environment.

Environment is defined as he state inside and around an organism, which directly or indirectly impacts the behavior, growth and development, or life process. From a scientific standpoint, environment is regarded to include anything that is physically external to the organism; organism includes human people.

Legally detailed in Section 2 (a) of the Environmental Protection Act, 1986, the environment is said to comprise of land, water, and air, as well as the interdependence that occurs between water, air, and land and humans and other living animals, plants, microorganisms, and property.

Indian Environmental Law – Analysing the Historical Perspectives:

India has a long history of environmental protection. Most ancient traditions teach that it is the Responsibility of every person in every culture to safeguard the environment. This is why humans have always worshiped natural items. People in ancient times ate ripped fruits. They were not accustomed to plugging it and eating it, although they do take fruits that fall on their own.

Our ancient writings make extensive use of trees, water, land, and animals. They used to worship the woodland region as "Van-Devata," the water/river area as "Jal Devata," and the sky as "Vayu Devata." People used to eat once a day and bathe three times a week in the ancient world. Manusmriti discusses the best use of nature's resources and imposes various punishments for inflicting harm to plants.

We discovered in Hinduism that the Vedas, Upanishads, and other ancient Hindu writings place a high value on trees, plants, and animals, as well as their worth to humans. In Islam, man and environment live in intimate harmony. The importance of water cleanliness is mentioned in the Holy Quran, and there is also a short that Allah or God is the owner of the land, humanity is the trustee, and living beings are deemed to be the beneficiaries.

Ancient thinkers such as Chanakya highlighted the necessity of environmental conservation. In his jurisprudence, the state was compelled to preserve forests, penalties were enforced for cutting trees and destroying forests, forest reserves were for wild animals, and when they were dangerous, they would be killed or tied in locations beyond the reserve woods.

The Indian Constitution laid the path for the development of environmental law in India. Constitutional amendments such as the 42nd amendment included measures emphasizing the role of the state and its people to conserve the environment.

The Principle Governing the General Environmental Law:

Sustainable Development:

The overexploitation of natural resources caused by urbanization, industrialisation, and population growth has resulted in fast environmental deterioration in India. As a result, there is an urgent need to safeguard the environment while also guaranteeing sustainable growth. To address the issue of environmental deterioration, experts throughout the globe have developed a theory known as sustainable development, which basically supports harmony between development and environmental conservation.

The idea of sustainable development is not a novel one. To achieve a balance between the environment and development, the notion of sustainable development refers to development that satisfies the demands of the current generation without compromising our ability to satisfy the needs of future generations.

The Precautionary Principle:

This concept traces its origin to the Earth Summit held in 1992, noted as Principle 15, which advocates for the wider implementation of the precautionary principle on a global scale. In order to safeguard the environment, nations should use the precautionary approach to the best of their ability. Where there is a risk of catastrophic or irreparable harm, a lack of complete scientific assurance should not be utilized to delay cost-effective efforts to avert environmental deterioration.

The Supreme Court of India defined the following three notions for the precautionary principle:

1. Environmental policies must predict, prevent, and address the underlying causes of environmental deterioration.

2. Lack of scientific assurance should not be used to justify delaying action.

3. The actor has the liability of proving that his activity is lawful.

Doctrine on Public Trust:

This issue concerned the launch of a grandiose club project, which was initiated by a leading private company in the hospitability sector. It was alleged that the then Environmental Minister had some vested interests involved in that project.  This permit resulted in the incursion of the Beas River, and because to the pressure from the project's building activity, the river shifted its path, washing away the nearby lawns.

The owners utilized bulldozers and earthmovers, causing the Beas river to alter course. This was done to safeguard the hotel from potential river floods.

This led to the initiation of the above doctrine on Public Trust, which contended that some resources, such as air, water, sea, and forests, are so important to society as a whole that making them private property would be completely wrong.

The Sustainable Development Doctrine:

For the infringement of Article 21, a Public Interest Lawsuit was brought under Article 32. It was the country's first lawsuit of its sort concerning environmental and ecological balance. This concerned mining operations in a region of the Doon Valley that devastated the flora, and landslides killed many people while destroying their houses, animals, and agricultural areas, which were their only source of income.

As per the prevalent mining regulations existing at that point of time, the state government was unable to control mining. Illegal lease extensions and harmful behaviours persisted, as did corrupt and inept governmental policies that violated existing mining safety standards.

These irregularities prompted the petitioner to file a writ suit with the Supreme Court of India in 1983. In response, the Supreme Court intervened and ordered vegetation.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1988 that continuous mining harmed the forest and violated the Forest Conservation Act.

Moris Media, a leading PR Boutique and Digital Marketing agency in India, has been championing the cause of environmental protection and leading its voice to sustainable practices. Working with more than 40+ industrial segments in India, we have often lend our voices to champion the implementation of practices that can make the environment secure for our future generations.