With consistent
efforts of the Ministry of Environment and Forests with high priority
to environmental conservation and pollution control, India is a
party to Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and
Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed Consent Procedure for certain
hazardous chemicals and pesticides in International Trade.
During last
two years, the Ministry has taken many other policy initiatives
regarding forest conservation, wildlife protection, environmental
clearance and pollution control, rivers and lakes conservation plans,
wetland maintenance, etc. It is for the first time that a detailed guideline
for management of mangroves has been formulated.
General approval for diversion of
forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 was granted
for public utility developmental projects by Government departments
under ground laying of electrical cables, water supply pipelines,
telephone lines etc., in tribal areas have been extended upto October 15, 2007. The procedure
for forestry clearance under Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2003 has
been simplified.
Model legislation for ‘Minor Forest Produce (Ownership of
Forest Dependent Communities)’ communicated to all State/UT governments. National Forest Commission has submitted its
report. In all, 680 FDAs
at the cost of Rs. 1,489.42 crore under National Afforestation Programme
(NAP) and 13 Central Nurseries in 7 States under Greening India
Programme are operationalised.
All States adopted JFM (Joint Forest Management) with involvement
of 13.8 million families.
Wild Life
Financial and technical assistance provided to 316 Wildlife
Protected Areas of the country under the scheme of “Development
of National Park & Sanctuaries”.
The Government has approved a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme
of ‘Management of Prospective Gregarious Flowering of Muli Bamboos
in the North-Eastern States’ for implementing various components
of action plan. An ‘Advance
Research Centre for Bamboo and Rattans’ will be set up at Aizwal,
Mizoram. Four projects funded by External Agency, JBIC
have been approved for four States.
National Tiger Project
A Bill for amending the Wildlife (Protection) Act has been
introduced in Parliament for creation of the ‘National Tiger Conservation
Authority’. All India estimation of Tigers and prey animals
by new methodology endorsed by Tiger Task Force is being carried
out since November 2005.
Environment
A draft National Environment Policy (NEP) was formulated and
publicised for eliciting responses of various stakeholders. The comprehensive review of the existing
environmental clearance process under the EIA Notification 1994
is completed. A High Level
Expert Committee, under Dr M.S. Swaminathan Committee, reviewed
the existing Coastal Zone Regulation and its recommendations have
been accepted by the Ministry and taken up for implementation.
For continuous air quality monitoring, Automatic Air Quality
Monitoring Stations have been set up in four cities namely; Jodhpur,
Patna, Pune and Sholapur. Bharat Stage-II norms for new vehicles under
the Auto Fuel Policy have been introduced through out the country
from 2005, and EURO-III equivalent emission norms for all new vehicles,
except 2-3 wheelers, have been introduced in 11 major cities.
River Conservation Plan
A total of
34 rivers have been covered under the National River Conservation
Plan to improve the water quality, i.e., upto bathing class of the
rivers, which are the major fresh water resources in the country
through the implementation of pollution abatement scheme.
Additional works under Ganga Action Plan (GAP) have been
taken up in 60 towns along the main stem of river Ganga at an approved
cost of Rs. 82.11 crore. Yamuna Action Plan II for pollution abatement
works is under implementation in the States of U.P., Haryana and
Delhi at a cost of Rs. 124 crore, 62.5 crore and 387 crore, respectively. Pollution abatement works have also been taken
up in 64 towns along 29 rivers in 14 States of the country. Under Lake Conservation Plan, works on 37
lakes including Dal Lake, were taken up.
Wetlands and Mangroves
Comprehensive guidelines have been formulated
for conservation and management of Wetlands to provide livelihood
supports to people dependent on wetlands.
Detailed guidelines for conservation and management of Mangroves
have been formulated for the first time.
The National
CDM Authority has approved 252 projects in various fields, including
biomass based Cogeneration, Energy efficiency, Municipal Solid Waste;
Renewables such as Wind, Small Hydro projects, etc. More than 72,000 eco-clubs are active in various schools in the
country for enhancing environmental awareness.
The Ministry re-oriented and strengthened the decentralised
Environmental Information Network, viz. Environmental Information
System (ENVIS), throughout the country. The system network was expanded
with 78 network partners out of which 30 are State oriented ENVIS
Centres and 48 are Subject Specific Centres.
A Uniform Protocol on Water (Quality Monitoring) was
notified in order to bring uniformity in the water quality monitoring
mechanism for surface and ground waters by all monitoring agencies
in the country. The Uniform Protocol is under adoption by all the
concerned agencies.
India ratified the Stockholm Convention on Persistent
Organic Pollutants on January 13, 2006, and the Convention came
into force for India on April 13, 2006.
India also ratified the Rotterdam Convention on Prior Informed
Consent Procedure for certain hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides
in International Trade on May 24, 2006.
India is now party to both the conventions.
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