Summary Paper: Environmental Law Notes By Praveen Kumar PDF

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Environmental Law Notes Praveen Kumar 1 Contents UNIT 1 .................................................................................................................................................................... 4 1. Explain traditional and modern approach to environment.......................

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Environmental Law Notes by Praveen Kumar

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Contents UNIT 1 .................................................................................................................................................................... 4 1.

Explain traditional and modern approach to environment.................................................................................4

2.

What is ozone depletion? And explain causes of ozone depletion. ................................................................7

3.

Effect of population explosion on development ................................................................................................15

4.

Write note on sustainable development.............................................................................................................17

5.

Define “Environment” and explain the importance of protection of Environment ................................................24

6.

What is meant by Global Warming? How does it affect the Environment? ............................................................31

7.

Sustainable Development – the Gandhian Way ......................................................................................................39

8.

Acid Rain and its effects ...........................................................................................................................................42

9.

Describe the different kinds of environmental pollution. .......................................................................................46

10. Ecosystem Services ..................................................................................................................................................52 UNIT – II................................................................................................................................................................. 55 11. Explain the principle of absolute liability as propounded by Indian Judiciary. ........................................................55 12. What are the different provisions of the Indian Constitution concerning the Protection of Environment? ..........57 13. National Forest Policy, 1988 ....................................................................................................................................62 14. Precautionary principle. ...........................................................................................................................................64 15. Explain “Polluter Pays Principle” and “Environmental Courts” ...............................................................................66 16. What was Mrs. Gandhi’s point of view in Stockholm conference? How did the Govt. of India respond to the Stockholm resolution? .....................................................................................................................................................69 17. Fundamental Rights. ................................................................................................................................................73 18. Public Trust Doctrine................................................................................................................................................77 19. Discuss the role of Judiciary in protection of environment with the help of decided cases ...................................79 20. PIL .............................................................................................................................................................................85 UNIT III .................................................................................................................................................................. 86 21. Explain the salient features of Kyoto Protocol 1997................................................................................................86 22. Write a brief note on Rio-declaration 1992 .............................................................................................................88 23. Explain Nairobi Convention 1982.............................................................................................................................91 24. Explain briefly the Common Law regulatory concepts to check pollution problem................................................95 25. Explain the remedies prescribed under criminal law for pollution problem. ..........................................................98 26. Availability of judicial forum ..................................................................................................................................100 27. The National Environmental Tribunal Act, 1995....................................................................................................103 28. Write a note on Earth Summit 1992 ......................................................................................................................105 29. Riparian rights ........................................................................................................................................................108 UNIT IV ................................................................................................................................................................ 109 2

30. What are the functions of Central Board Under Water Act 1974?........................................................................109 31. Write a note on cruelty against the animals as defined in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 ........115 32. How is air pollution defined under the Air Act of 1981? .......................................................................................116 33. Explain the measures taken to protect wildlife under Wildlife Protection Act 1972. ...........................................121 34. Discuss the law relating to Conservation of Forests under Forest Conservation Act, 1980. .................................127 35. Describe briefly the salient features of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Explain the different delegated legislations under Environmental law............................................................................................................................129 UNIT V ................................................................................................................................................................. 133 36. Environment impact assessment ...........................................................................................................................133 37. Eco-Mark ................................................................................................................................................................138 38. Write a note on power to take sample for analysis and procedure to be followed under EP Act 1986. ..............139 39. Public Participation ................................................................................................................................................140 40. Environment Audit .................................................................................................................................................143 41. The Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 1998 ........................................................................147 42. Recycled Plastic Manufacture and Usage Rules of 1999 .......................................................................................150

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UNIT 1 1. Explain traditional and modern approach to environment Traditional Approach: The Ecologically based life styles of the Aboriginals did not lead to Forest or Fish exploitation. A lesson from the North American Aboriginal people is that the seventh generation in the future is the reference point for sustainable development Traditional spiritual values were skeptical of technological excesses and were attuned to Holistic Values. Ancient Asian Culture had awareness and respect for nature. Commons (Those part of the environment that no one owns e.g., the atmosphere or the oceans and their fish) were protected by the invisible hands of Morals, Religion and Tradition. They used practices that ensure minimization of waste and foster conservation. These practices formed a part of the religion of traditional societies. The commons as a part of Nature were held with a respect that placed a control on individual self-interest. Institutional arrangements to avoid depletion of commonly owned fish stocks are intricately interwoven into the traditional society’s social fabric and are based on detailed observational knowledge of what happens in nature, but little knowledge of why. Nature was idealized as the “Ever- loving Mother” and taken care of. They did not forget that the base line domination of women or Nature is the impoverishment of themselves, their children, and the sea or land. Aboriginal values imbue the resources of the Earth with sacred life and personhood and thus preserved them. Humans were expected to live in harmony with Nature. Shinto, Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian stories illustrate how human development is to interact with Nature in a sustainable fashion. Traditional Thought is shown to contain indigenous foundations for an effective environmental ethic. Warnings are offered against too much civilization upon Nature and humans are urged to follow the principle of exploiting Nature without destroying its regenerative capacity. Historically, Aboriginals took from the land only those food and materials upon which their livelihood depended. Stone or clod retaining walls were often used to prevent erosion. Lands subject to heavy flooding were avoided. Channels were dug out to provide drainage and helped to protect against flood damage during the wet season. The slopes of mounds were often planted with sugar cane and other crops to retain the soil. Plantings along the banks had both magical and practical significance in stabilization and erosion control. Only a single harvest was generally done. A fallow period of three to ten years was given before the land was reused. Aboriginals respected and interacted with the natural processes of rivers. To them the Fish offered the basis for a permanent, flourishing and a sustainable society. For them the ultimate value lay in protecting the health of the river so as to ensure the growth of the Fish. Sixteenth To The Twentieth Century Approach: Present values from the sixteenth to the twentieth century tend to exploit Forests on Land and Fishes in Rivers and Seas. Obstacles include: Taking one’s primary group as one’s only concern, placing personal prosperity before environmental concern. Self-interest alone will not protect the commons. Traditional values tend not to promote materialism while industrial development does. The arrival of plow agriculture and the Industrial Revolution made things worse taking the domination of nature to new heights. 4

Nature was viewed as nothing but dead matter in motion. With no life or soul of its own, Nature could be exploited to augment wealth and power. Population growth lead to further environmental degradation. Dams and irrigation systems have radically altered the natural flow of the rivers and the life cycle of fishes creating an environmental impact. Rivers with abundant fish have been turned into slack water pond and reservoirs with very little fish surviving. Development of Energy systems like Nuclear power plants and Hydroelectric dams have affected the environment drastically. Urban expansion and the very large “Environmental Footprint” needed to sustain cities and along with the ecological debt their pollution creates are very real causes of concern for the future. If the current trends continue it is clear that the next ten to twenty years will bring will bring a great increase in pollution. Modern Approach now calls for an economic growth that is not an end in itself but that supports social and environmental values. The idea is that one should preserve the virtue of the natural environment by “doing without overdoing” Modern Approach: The new agenda of environmental sustainability is driving companies to think and behave in new ways and comes against a background of unprecedented advances in technology and rising consumption, with the world facing the twin challenges of climate change and resource depletion. External pressure from regulators and governments and an increasingly knowledgeable customer base have, of course, led many companies to introduce environmental policies. However, the problem with such an environmental practice is that it is driven simply by reducing carbon footprints - for example, using less energy in the manufacturing process and reducing pre-consumer waste. It is an environmental model of being "less bad" rather than "truly good." However, importantly, it simply perpetuates a "cradle-to-grave" business model, where products that have reached the end of their useful lives are considered worthless. Carpet Industry Example: It's a business model that the carpet industry has traditionally followed and, in terms of waste, makes for grim reading. Statistics from the USA suggest that carpeting is replaced on average every seven years, despite usually having a guaranteed life of between ten and 25 years. That means that a lot of perfectly good carpeting is thrown away every year, because it's faded or just feels dated. That adds up to millions of square feet of carpet every year, and most of it is left to rot in landfill sites where it takes 50 years for natural fibres such as wool to break down, and 250,000 years for man-made fibres such as nylon to degrade. That's a large number of years, and a huge wasted resource, when much of that material could be used again. It's an issue that is now of real concern to the carpet industry, with all the larger companies voluntarily addressing issues of sustainability: taking old carpet materials back into carpet production, recycling old carpet into alternative products such as building materials and auto parts, and refurbishing old carpet into new carpet tiles Despite the significant problems involved in collecting, sorting and transporting post-consumer carpet to be reprocessed, it's a challenge that carpet and fiber companies are addressing, often working in partnership with entrepreneurial businesses which are creating local or regional carpet and textile collection sites, from which old carpets can, at least in part, be reprocessed. A Cradle to Cradle Approach to Environmental Protection: Nor is it a processing journey within the carpet industry alone. For example, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic beverage bottles are now being recycled in their millions to make polyester carpet fibers. 5

Most corporate environmental journeys start with that approach: quantifying the carbon footprints, identifying ways of reducing it through minimizing waste, recycling, changing to renewable sources of energy, and setting incremental targets to improve performance throughout the manufacturing and distribution chains. But it isn't a philosophy of change, merely looking in isolation at everything that a company does, rather than looking holistically at the entire business. Thus was discovered a philosophy that did make sense. That philosophy is called Cradle to Cradle®. In 2002, German chemist Michael Braungart and American architect William McDonough heralded it with their book 'Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things'. Its central premise is that products should be conceived from the very start with intelligent design and the intention that they would eventually be recycled, as either 'technical' or 'biological' nutrients. Time Magazine has called it "a unified philosophy that - in demonstrable and practical ways - is changing the design of the world." It brings a new methodology to the design of processes, products and services, by looking at raw materials both in terms of their intrinsic value and how, at the end of that product's useful life, they can be taken apart and recycled - or "up-cycled" into products that may have a value and sophistication beyond that of their original use.

Simply, it's a

philosophy of birth-to-rebirth. A birth-to-re birth philosophy may sound deceptively simple, but it turns conventional sustainability on its head, because conventional thinking is all about a language of negatives. The green lobby talks about "minimising" human impacts, "zero footprints," "banning" harmful substances or "reducing" energy use. This approach is, of course, better than doing nothing. But, effectively, what it's saying is that adopting a "less bad" approach is inherently ethical. What a Cradle to Cradle® company says instead is that it doesn't matter how much we manufacture, or how much "waste" we create because waste simply become the raw materials or nutrients for further manufacturing - with products being reborn and reborn. It's a philosophy that looks at the world with a new perspective, because it doesn't romanticize nature or demonize factories or manufacturing processes. It's an approach that accepts that, in the modern world, we need to make things - and the goal should be to find ways that balance commercial activity with the natural world. To put it another way: the language of conventional sustainability says that we should hold onto products for longer whether it's a car or a mobile phone, and to therefore conserve the world's resources. However, this approach only slows change, and goes against human instinct. After all, do you really want your laptop to last twenty-five years? Or to be using the same cellphone in a decade from now? Instead, Cradle to Cradle® makes planned obsolescence respectable. It encourages consumers to buy more products, but to do so from innovative companies that have policies in place to recycle old products, turning waste into new products or into nutrients. That closed loop philosophy doesn't necessarily mean turning old products into identical new products. It means designing products that can be disassembled and used and used again in a continuous and virtuous cycle, where the intrinsic "value" of each component is preserved or enhanced. The Cradle to Cradle® philosophy therefore eliminates the concept of waste. The important thing is that Cradle to Cradle® not only makes good environmental sense but it is also good for business. It is a business model that can work across the manufacturing sector.

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2. What is ozone depletion? And explain causes of ozone depletion. What is Ozone? Ozone is a natural gas composed of three atoms of oxygen. It chemical symbol is O3. It is blue in colour and has a strong odour. Normal oxygen (O2), which we breathe, has two oxygen atoms and is colourless and odourless. Environmental scientists have classified O3 into two: Good Ozone and Bad Ozone. Good Ozone: Good ozone (also called Stratospheric Ozone) occurs naturally in the upper Stratosphere. The stratosphere is the layer of space 15 to 50 kms above the earth's surface. Bad Ozone: Bad Ozone is also known as Tropospheric Ozone, or ground level ozone. This gas is found in the troposphere, the layer that forms the immediate atmosphere. Bad Ozone does not exist naturally. Human actions cause chemical reactions between oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds. Ozone Layer:

The ozone layer comprises the greater part of the stratosphere between altitudes of 15 and 50 km. It is mainly located in the lower portion of the stratosphere from approximately 15 km to 35 km above Earth's surface, though the thickness varies seasonally and geographically. The concentration of ozone molecules is 10-12 parts ozone per 1 million parts air. The average thickness of the ozone layer is about 50 km but if compressed by sea-level pressures, it would be only a few millimetres thick. The Dobson Unit (DU) is a scale for measuring the total amount of ozone occupying a column of air. One DU is defined as 0.01 mm thickness a...