TSR Subramanian Committee Recommendations

In August 2014, the NDA Government  had set up a high-level committee to review the six environment laws in India and recommend specific amendments to bring them in line with current requirements. The committee was headed by the former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian.

The six laws under review were:

• Indian Forest Act 1927
• Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972
• Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974
• Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981
• Forest Conservation Act 1980
• Environment (Protection) Act 1986.

After holding consultations with the stakeholders, the committee has submitted its report in November 2014.

Key Recommendations

1. It has recommended for creation of a new “umbrella” law by subsuming the existing environmental laws.
2. Under the proposed new Environment Law Management Act (ELMA), full-time expert bodies—National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and State Environment Management Authority (SEMA)—are to be established at the Central and state levels respectively. They should evaluate project clearance (using technology and expertise), in a time bound manner, providing for single window clearance.
3. The existing Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCB)are proposed to be “subsumed” under NEMA and SEMA once the new bodies come into existence.
4. It recommends that an “environmental reconstruction cost” should be assessed for each project. The assessment should be on the basis of the damage caused by it to the environment and damage be dovetailed with the cost of the project. This cost has to be recovered as a cess or duty from the project proponent during the life of the project. An “Environment Reconstruction Fund” is proposed to be established for accumulation of this cost and other penalties recovered from projects.
5. Protected areas and forests with over 70% of the tree coverage should be declared as ‘No GO’ areas.
6. Compensatory afforestation in the revenue land should be modified to 2:1 from the existing 1:1 ratio. The compensatory afforestation in degraded forest land should be modified to 3:1 from the existing 2:1 ratio.
7. An All India Service with name as ‘India Environment Service’ may be created.
8. It recommended for removing condition of gram sabha approval particularly for linear projects like roads, railways or transmission lines.

Current Status

In July 2015, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology has rejected the report. The standing committee said that the recommendations of the committee would result in an unacceptable dilution of the existing legal and policy architecture established to protect our environment. The standing committee also suggested for constitution of a new committee to review the environment laws. However, the union government was  looking into the recommendations of committee for its possible implementation.