Policy contradictions among various competing sectors and stakeholders have resulted in inadequate…

Question

Policy contradictions among various competing sectors and stakeholders have resulted in inadequate protection and prevention of degradation to environment. Comment with relevant illustrations.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Environmental degradation in India stems less from weak laws than from energy, farm, infrastructure and revenue policies that contradict them and from regulators tied to the governments they police. Free farm power and assured paddy procurement drained Punjab's groundwater, and the 2009 subsoil water law then worsened stubble burning.

**Introduction**

Article 48A directs the State to protect the environment, and Subhash Kumar (1991) read a clean environment into Article 21. Yet energy, farm, infrastructure and revenue policies often pull against this mandate, so laws protect less than promised.

**Sectoral Policies Working at Cross-Purposes**

1. **Food security versus water**: Free farm power and assured paddy procurement drained Punjab's groundwater, and the 2009 subsoil water law then compressed the harvest window, worsening stubble burning.
2. **Energy versus forests**: Hasdeo Arand in Chhattisgarh was classed "no-go" for mining in 2010, yet coal blocks there were later allotted, pitting coal supply against one of central India's densest forests.
3. **Projects versus forest rights**: The Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act 2023 exempts strategic linear projects near borders, while the Niyamgiri case (2013) upheld gram sabhas' say under the Forest Rights Act.

**Why the Contradictions Persist**

SKETCH: venn | Competing Policy Goals
a: Growth
b: Welfare
c: Ecology
overlap: Policy coherence

1. **Conflicted regulators**: Understaffed State Pollution Control Boards depend on governments that promote the industries they regulate.
2. **Ex post facto approvals**: Alembic Pharmaceuticals (2020) held post-facto clearance alien to environmental law, yet such windows keep reopening.
3. **Signs of coherence**: The Commission for Air Quality Management Act (2021) created one body for the NCR airshed, showing shared institutions can resolve inter-State conflict.

**Conclusion**

The statement is largely true: degradation stems less from weak laws than from sectoral policies that contradict them. Environmental review of sectoral policies, independent regulators and incentives for crop diversification would make growth and ecology complements under SDG 13 and 15.

Policy contradictions among various competing sectors and stakeholders have resulted in inadequate protection and prevention of degradation to environment. Comment with relevant illustrations.

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