“Court cases involving Environment Ministry make me happy”

The ministry has been entrusted with a gigantic task and sometimes it cannot cope with the work, but there is no question of not spending the money. In conservation of wildlife and forest protection, a lot of money is required and we have projected a huge increase in funds. We have asked for Rs 2400 crore for wild life in the Ninth Plan. In certain sectors, money has not been spent and I will look into that, but my impression is that more funds are required.

The ministry has also been criticised by the courts, the public and the NGOs.

That trend will be reversed. Problems need hard work and I will show that I am up to the task.

The ministry is a respondent in over 300 cases in the Supreme Court and thousands of others in High courts.

The court cases make me happy as it reflects the changing mode of the society which has become conscious of the environment. And if the system refuses to respond to the people’s aspirations, they will have to take recourse to the court. But some judgements of the court are not welcome, however, because they are from the Supreme Court they have to be accepted nonetheless.

But you have no legal department.

I am looking into that, whether I should have a legal department or have standing counsels for High Courts and one for the Supreme Court. We have set up an environment impact assessment (EIA) authority for the Capital. We are also setting up the National Environment Tribunal as well as the National Environment Appellate Authority.

What is their purpose? This will bring a lot of relief to the society. It will be the watchdog of the government. Somebody directly or indirectly touched by environmental clearance given by the ministry can appeal to it.

It will visit the affected sites and conduct hearings.

But what about transparency and professionalism. This authority is packed with bureaucrats with no experts or NGOs?

It has to have a judge as the chair. Then we needed a forester, we have got experienced secretaries. It is an authority constituted by Parliament and the composition is based on the Supreme Court’s observation. There is no appeal against its decisions in the High Court or Supreme Court. If you are not satisfied you can file a writ in the Supreme Court.

But it did not bar you from having independent experts. The previous minister was considering putting two NGOs on it for greater transparency.

By the time I came (to the ministry) the draft bill was available and I could not change it. The spirit of the SC judgement was kept in view. We shall consider it (nominating NGOs) in the future.

You talk of this being a watchdog but you had an earlier one called the Social Audit Panel (SAP). Almost everybody on it has resigned. You first called a press conference to release its report and then cancelled it. Why?

Bhaskar Rao of the panel called a press conference without consulting me. The ministry officials told me to study the report carefully. These people did not present the complete report to me. Certain information had been withheld from me.

n The US and other western countries are targeting India on various environment-related issues. We have nobody working on environmental diplomacy to counter them.

The ministry will have to be strengthened. The US can talk of environmental diplomacy after centuries of development. Our concern is population growth and poverty.

But the world community is meeting in Japan in December this year to decide on targets for cutting down carbon dioxide emissions. We have targets to cut out ozone depleting substances. What are we doing?

In Japan, I am going to tell the world that ozone and greenhouse gases are a concern, but my first concern is India’s poverty, growing population and development.

But we have signed documents committing ourselves to phasing out certain gases etc. Will we fulfil those?

We have signed on many things. We shall do something but our hands are full. Before thinking about ozone, I must ensure development in areas where development has not taken place like the North East. But I must also protect the forest there which have suffered a great loss. I will take notice of ozone and climate change only when my situation permits me.

n There has been a cell in your ministry for promoting clean, non-polluting technologies for the last three years but not a single technology has come through it.

This is a priority and I will do it. I have, in fact, asked the new secretary to look into it. I have organised funds and it will happen.n Moving on to forests, how do you feel about the SC judgement on banning non-forest activity in forest areas, where several saw mills etc were closed?That judgement came as a shot in the arm, because we had been losing forests. My worry is that there is very little dense forest cover which is roughly 12 per cent. Even the forest cover which is 19 per cent needs improvement.

What is happening to the Ganga Action Plan (GAP)?

The GAP is in doldrums but the effort is very sizeable. There are snags like getting 50 per cent funds from the states, which are not forthcoming. They want complete funding from the CentreI’m considering that and have asked the Planning Commission to look into it. We are going to focus on the Ganga and the Yamuna, but we cannot follow what the US and Europe are doing.