Govt drops Greenpeace India from its list of environmental NGOs

The Home Ministry had last month cancelled its registration under FCRA alleging that it was working against the country's economic progress

Greenpeace India has been dropped from the Union Environment Ministry’s official directory of NGOs working in the field of environment after having its licence revoked by the Home Ministry last month.

Although it secured an interim stay from Madras High Court on the order, it failed to make it to the ‘Directory of ‘Environmental NGOs in India – 2015’ – brought out by the Environment Ministry. The earlier editions contained the name of the green group.

The home ministry's foreigners' division had on September 3 cancelled the Greenpeace India's registration under the FCRA alleging that the NGO was working against the country's economic progress.

After releasing the 10th edition of the directory on Tuesday, Union Environment minister Prakash Javadekar announced that a performance-based rating will be brought out for such NGOs to encourage them. He said the move was necessary since NGOs act as a bridge between the government and the people.

The directory contains a list of about 2,300 NGOs in all the states and union territories working towards environmental protection, conservation and awareness.

It has been compiled by Environmental Information System (ENVIS) Centre, WWF-India on the ministry’s behalf. The database provides the general details of NGOs along with their area of activity and geographical area of coverage.

The directory is compiled in such a way that it can be used effectively by government agencies, voluntary groups, libraries, researchers, aid agencies, the media and educational institutions.

An NGO cell has already been set up in the environment ministry to handle various matters relating to NGOs' work in diverse fields of environment.