Green India Mission is not 'business-as-usual', says Ramesh
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COMMENTS 
Specialised environmental courts being set up under the National Green Tribunal will become operational within the next five months, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said in Pune recently
“Green India Mission is not business-as-usual. If that is the case, we will be playing with people’s sentiments. This is about improving our mental outlook. It is an opportunity to bring about change,” Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said at the outset of the third national public consultation of the National Mission for a Green India, in Pune on June 19, 2010.
“We will not go into how things have been done in the last 50 years. This is going to be different. We seek to bring about a change in the relationship between the people and the forest department. We will ensure transparency and a system of social audits,” he added.
Having come to the city after a visit to Guwahati and Visakhapatnam, the minister and other members of the core committee interacted with activists and citizens, sharing suggestions and grievances. The national consultations will be held in four other cities: Dehra Dun, Bhopal, Jaipur and Mysore, after which a final draft of the Mission will be prepared in August.
Stating that the proposed National Green Tribunal (NGT) would be headquartered in Bhopal as atonement (prayashchitta) for the Bhopal gas tragedy, Ramesh said four benches of the environmental courts would be instituted to hear cases relating to pollution-inflicted damage to the community. “Any citizen can approach these courts for civil damages claims,” he said.
The minister also informed the gathering that a National Mission for Sustainable Habitat too would be implemented shortly in 65 cities in the country to make them “climate resilient” and to increase green cover.
The Mission is part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), aiming at increasing the country’s forest cover by 10 million hectares by 2020 and enhancing ecosystem services in a holistic manner.
Reacting to the announcements, the National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM) said that although the Mission was concentrating on ‘greening’ the country, it should not be forgotten that ‘de-greening’ through afforestation is also resulting in loss of forest cover. “Taking the example of Lavasa City that has cut hundreds of trees and not got any clearance from the environment ministry, we should look into such matters before planting more trees,” it said.
Ecologist Madhav Gadgil suggested that a Community Forest Reserve’ be created and people’s participation encouraged. Furthermore, from the 2 lakh villages with forest cover, 2 crore hectares of land could be used for the Mission.
Environmental activist Ashish Kothari stressed that gram sabhas should be the deciding authority on land. “Urban greening and preservation of wetlands is very important. Apart from that, agro forestry should not be carried out on food lands,” he said. On the question of funds, he stated that “mechanisms that will make sure that the money is spent where it should be spent and by whom it should be spent” should be put in place.
Sampat Kale, a faculty member at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), said Maharashtra’s mangroves should be taken care of as they were being endangered by Special Economic Zones (SEZs).
Responding to these suggestions, Ramesh said India would soon be launching two satellites exclusively devoted to monitoring environmental changes in the country. While one will be for carbon emissions, the other will assess forest cover. Both will be monitored every day with the help of satellites.
“Currently, forest cover in the country can be known only after two years and the reduction of this period will help the government in taking steps immediately,” Ramesh said.
Source: The Hindu, June 21, 2010
Press Trust of India, June 21, 2010
Hindustan Times, June 21, 2010