Govt to push Bill for setting up green body in current session
BS Reporter / New Delhi Nov 21, 2009, 00:30 IST
The government will try to pass the National Green Tribunal Bill, 2009, in the current Parliament session. The Bill aims at establishing an autonomous tribunal, independent of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), for environmental clearance of development projects and providing relief and compensation to people affected by natural calamities.
“The Bill was introduced in Parliament this July and has been referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee, which is expected to submit its report on Monday,” said Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh while launching the ‘Green India 2047’ report here today.
Ramesh also said environmental governance required strengthening. At present, 21 per cent of the land area is under forest cover, while the tree cover stands at 3 per cent.
Moreover, of the total forest cover, only 2 per cent is high density and 9 per cent medium density. The remaining 10 per cent of the forest area is degraded land. “We need to improve the quality of forests, as 10 per cent of greenhouse gases are sequestered by 65 per cent of India’s forest cover and this level should be maintained going ahead. We must know the social, economic and ecological value of our forests,” said Ramesh.
As part of environmental governance, Ramesh said India would be in a position to provide an alternative gross domestic product (GDP) by 2015 that will also account for the consumption of natural resources as well and this GDP would stand for Green Domestic Product.
Commenting on the issue of private sector involvement in forest management, which is favoured by R K Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Ramesh said: “I am not agreeing on it because the private sector is interested in plantations and I am interested in forests.”
India can win a Nobel for dirt and filth: Jairam
Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh lamented the poor disposal facilities of municipal waste in most of the cities in the country. “Our cities are dirtiest cities of the world. Technology is important in treating municipal solid waste. If there is a Nobel prize for dirt and filth, India will win it hands down,” said Ramesh while addressing an event on Friday.
To promote green cover to counter diverse climate change in India, there is as an urgent need, as envisaged by the Environment and forest Minister Jairam Ramesh to upgrde the forest cover to at least 10% as against 2%. As rightly expressed by the Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh that India can win a Nobel prize for dirt and filth. With no proper/scientific disposal of municipal and solid waste in most of our cities, the dirt and filth is littered around, causing unhygenic conditions, detrimental to medical and health cover. Suitable steps need to be taken in this regard to ensure hygeine, sainitaion and environmental upgradation in our country.
"Commenting on the issue of private sector involvement in forest management, which is favoured by R K Pachauri, the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Ramesh said: "I am not agreeing on it because the private sector is interested in plantations and I am interested in forests.""
Why is the Minister being so presumptuous about the private sector? And why can't the government specify the nature of forests that the private sector can develop on degraded forest and scrub lands, which the government has not been able to do in the last hundred years. Indeed, it is clear that the Minister himself does not know that his own forest department is the biggest promoter of commercial plantations and mono-cultures, for instance, Pine in Uttarakhand, that have wrought havoc with the water resources and destroyed the lives of the poor people of the area.
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