Indian environmental law

Indian environmental law concerns the law and policy of India concerning the protection of the environment, measures taken to reverse climate change and achieve a zero carbon economy.

Since the sixties concern over the state of environment has grown the world over. There has been substantive decline in environment quality due to increasing pollution, loss of vegetal cover and biological diversity, excessive concentration of harmful chemicals in the ambient atmosphere and in food chains, growing risks of environment accidents and threats to life support systems. The Decision which were taken at united nation conference on the human conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm in June 1972 were based on the world community's resolve to protect and enhance the environmental concerns. Although several measures had been taken for environmental Protection both before and after the Conference it was found necessary to enact a comprehensive law on the subject to implement the decision of the conference. Accordingly the Environment (Protection) Bill passed was introduced in the Parliament Various different areas of environmental protection have been covered by different laws, drawn up at different times.

Some of the areas covered include :-

• Air pollution
• Water pollution
• Forest and wildlife protection
• Waste management
• Wild Life

As with environmental protection legislation in many countries, the regulations are only effective if they are properly enforced, which hasn't always been the case in India, for a number of reasons, some of which are down to local administrative authorities.

Because of the huge population of India, there have been enormous demands placed on the environment, with the regulations not proving to be entirely satisfactory in dealing with the tremendous pressures.