TSR Committee Reccos on Review of Environment Act Short Circuited

· The “environment” includes water, air and land and the inter- relationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property

The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 was enacted to provide for the protection and improvement of the environment and for matters connected therewith. As per the said Act, the “environment” includes water, air and land and the inter- relationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property.

A Committee had been constituted under T.S.R. Subramanian to review the Acts administered by the Ministry and to suggest appropriate amendments to bring them in line with their objectives and current requirements. The T.S.R. Subramanian Committee Report was reviewed by the Parliament Standing Committee on Science & Technology, chaired by the then Hon’ble M.P., Rajya Sabha, Ashwani Kumar, in the year 2015. The Committee was of the view that the period of three months allotted to the High Level Committee for reviewing the six environmental Acts was too short and therefore inter-alia recommended that the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, instead of proceeding with the implementation of the recommendations contained in HLC should give due consideration to the views/opinion and objections raised.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply in Lok Sabha on 12 December, 2022.