The Aravalli range, which runs from Gujarat through Rajasthan and till Haryana, has long played a significant role in Indian geography and history. It has served as a barrier to the spread of desertification from the Thar Desert to the Gangetic Plains, guarded Rajasthan’s proudest forts such as Chittorgarh and Ranthambore, and served as the cradle of spirituality for communities across northwest India. The Modi Government has now nearly signed a death warrant for these hills, already denuded by illegal mining. It has declared that any hills in the range with an elevation of less than 100 metres are not subject to the strictures against mining. It is an open invitation for illegal miners and mafias to finish off 90% of the range which falls below the height limit set by the Government.

On the northernmost end of the Aravalli range, the national capital has embarked on its annual smog season this month. A hazy mist of dust, smoke and particulate matter has been settling down on millions of citizens as they go about their daily lives breathing in toxic air. Even as the smog becomes a part of our yearly routine, research increasingly shows that it is a full-scale, slow-motion public health tragedy. Estimates of the human toll of this pollution go as high as 34,000 deaths in just 10 cities annually.

These are not disparate events

Last week the news headlines reflected yet another evolving tragedy. The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has reported that 13%-15% of tested groundwater samples in Delhi contain uranium beyond the permissible limit for human consumption. Shamefully, water samples from Punjab and Haryana reflect even higher levels of uranium contamination. One does not need to dwell on the frightening health implications that regular consumption of such water for daily activities can have on impacted populations.

These news items cannot be seen disparately. They are each causes and consequences of a crisis that has engulfed India in the last decade: a deep-seated and continuing disregard for the environment in government policymaking.

Ever since coming to power, the Modi Government has displayed a particularly venal streak of cynicism in relation to environmental protection, combining its proclivity to encourage the reckless exploitation of natural resources with a callous disregard for consequences on the environment. The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act, 2023 exempted large categories of land and projects from forest clearance rules, easing diversion for other purposes.

The Draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020 sought to dilute public hearings, expand exemptions and reduce compliance reporting. The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2018 eased construction rules along India’s shorelines, opening ecologically sensitive coastal areas and fishing communities’ habitats to commercial real estate and industrial activity. The Environment Ministry has more often been in the news for circumventing due process and weakening regulations rather than implementing them or taking proactive measures to halt the slide.

High-publicity initiatives such as the National Clean Air Programme have largely been underfunded, and even the funds allocated have not been utilised. The disclosure of the electoral bonds data, as a result of the Supreme Court of India’s verdict last year, then proved that many of these environmental clearances and policy shifts were made in the light of donations by large corporate groups to the ruling party. Can policymaking be so blatantly up for sale, to benefit the profit lines of a very few at the cost of the well-being of future generations, and of the planet?

Acting against local communities

Another emerging trend has been an insidious tendency to pit the environment against the local communities that protect it, when politically convenient for the Government. The Forest Survey of India has been mischievously attributing the loss of forest cover over the last decade to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006. Shockingly, even the Minister concerned has echoed the same claims. In June 2024, the National Tiger Conservation Authority called for the eviction of almost 65,000 families from tiger reserves across the country. It was not just a breach of the spirit of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 which mandates that all relocations must be voluntary; it was also unnecessarily inimical, ranging the environment against local communities.

India needs a new deal for the environment.

First, we must resolve to do no further harm. We must halt the large-scale deforestation that is planned or currently underway across the country: in Great Nicobar, in north Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Aranya, and in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhirauli. We need to crackdown on the rampant illegal mining in the Aravalli range and other eco-sensitive regions such as the Western Ghats. We need to put an end to the indiscriminate destruction of mountains in the Himalayan belt, which has exacted a heavy toll in human lives these past few years.

Review laws and policies

On a policy level, we need to urgently review the laws and policy changes of the last decade which have led us down this disastrous path. The Modi Government must withdraw the amendments it bulldozed through Parliament in the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 as well as the Forest Conservation Rules (2022) — which are anti-Adivasi and allow the clearing of forests without consulting those who live there. The blatantly illogical and dangerous practice of providing post-facto environmental clearances to big corporations that violate environmental laws — one of the Modi Government’s few home-grown policy innovations — cannot continue. The National Green Tribunal, which has been systematically weakened by vacancies, must be restored to its pride of place and be allowed to function independently of government policy and pressure. As a polity, we need to operate with greater inter-governmental coordination on environmental matters. The air pollution crisis in the NCR requires a whole-of-government approach as well as a regional airshed approach, just like the groundwater uranium contamination issue. On environmental matters, if nowhere else, the Modi Government must demonstrate a spirit of cooperative federalism.

Finally, as a philosophy, India’s environmental policies must be guided by a deference to the rule of law, a commitment to work with rather than against local communities, and an understanding of the inextricable relationship between environment and human development. It is only with such a worldview that we can build a safer, healthier, and more resilient India for the 21st century.

Sonia Gandhi is Chairperson, Congress Parliamentary Party