Javadekar lists increased forest cover, better monitoring of industrial pollution among top achievements

Minister of State for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said the vital accomplishments of his ministry include the increase in forest cover, better monitoring of industrial pollution and representation of the country's interest in COP Paris meet.

"We have increased our forest cover by 3,500 square kilometres in last two years, as also 100 square kilometres of Mangrove cover has increased. Our Botanical Survey of India and Zoological Survey of India have discovered respectively 655 and 155 new discoveries, many of them have been discovered for the first time in the world," Javadekar told ANI.

"We have mapped the coastal zone for marine ecology for the 7000 km of coastline India has and the high tide line has been marked on the map," he added.

Stating that India faces a problem of pollution and the Environment Ministry have taken the help of technology to make emission norms stringent, Javadekar noted that they are now monitoring the industrial pollution data as well as the other pollutions.

"We have revamped the complete waste management regime be it solid waste management, e-waste, management, hazardous waste management," he said.

"For the first time in the country, we have devised new rules of construction and demolition waste, so we are now tracking industrial pollution through 24/7 mechanism and if the industry exceeds the set parameters, immediately the ministry gets a notification on the mobile phone," he added.

Javadekar further said his ministry is creating a compliance mechanism, adding they are in the process of putting up the Draft Bill before the Cabinet for civil penalties, aimed to create real deterrent laws for all kinds of violations.

"The Lok Sabha has also passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, unlocking seven billion dollars for Afforestation, that will be carried out in next three years and most importantly we are encouraging growth of tree cover outside the forest to realise our target of 33 percent of forest cover," he added.

Javadekar said his ministry is not providing ease of doing business as usual rather they are providing ease for doing a 'responsible business'.

"We have re-categorised industries into Red, Green, Orange and White depending upon the pollution load," he added.

Highlighting the projects, Javadekar said all linear schemes that weren't cleared over the past few years have been cleared.

"A complete non transparent ministry has been transformed into a transparent ministry, where we are now protecting environment and ensuring development and sustainable development," he added.

When asked on the possibilities of the CAMPA Bill getting passed in Parliament, Javadekar expressed confidence that the bill would be passed in the next Monsoon Session.

The CAMPA law is a reference to the pending Bill that seeks to create Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority to deal with the money generated as compensation for diversion of forests for industrial or infrastructure projects.

The Civil Penalties law refers to a proposed legislation, still being discussed by various ministries that will introduce tougher penalties for violators of environmental norms.