A TALK ON
National Green Tribunal and Environmental Justice: Current discourses
Speaker: Rahul Chaudhary, Legal Initiative for Forests and Environment
For the last four decades, since India embarked on a journey of industrial development and then faster economic growth, the environmental issues facing the country have become graver. A complex environmental governance system with a multitude of important and critical environmental laws have evolved as a response to the growing challenges that face society. The judiciary has thus, played an important role in addressing environmental issues and several times failed to deal with many of these. In a state like Himachal Pradesh, where hydropower, mining, tourism projects and industrial development have become the central agenda of the economic policy, the fragile ecology and livelihoods dependent on natural resources have been at stake. With increasing climatic changes, the stress on the Himalayan region is even more severe. However, in Himachal, judicial activism in environment litigation has played an important role in many a landmark cases, especially related to pollution of rivers, deforestation and urban sprawl.
The newest avenue for judicial activism in the arena of environmental justice in India is National Green Tribunal. The National Green Tribunal is a statutory judicial body established by the Parliament under the National Green Tribunal Act in 2010. NGT is the country’s first specialised environmental court with expert members to adjudicate on environmental issues and disputes. One of the primary objectives of the tribunal is ensuring speedy environment justice and effective disposal of cases related to environmental protection, forest conservation and other natural resources, and most importantly enforcement of legal rights related to environment. But what have been the experiences with the functioning of the tribunal so far? What necessitated the formation of a unique independent body like NGT? What kind of cases can be brought before the tribunal? What are the cases from Himachal that are currently at the tribunal and the nature of these? What have been the landmark orders and judgements from the Tribunal that stand in favour of the environment?
To answer some of these questions, a half day seminar on the National Green Tribunal is being organised by Himdhara, Environment Research and Action Collective in collaboration with Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE). The workshop will discuss the role and importance of NGT, NGT Act, its relevance for Himachal Pradesh, and how it can be used effectively in ensuring environmentally sustainable development and upholding environment justice in the state. Rahul Chaudhary, an environmental lawyer, who along with his team members at LIFE has won big victories before the NGT in protecting rights of communities will address the seminar.
Venue: Bachat Bhavan, Shimla Date and Time: 30th November 2014, 10 am to 1 pm.
The seminar is open to environmental lawyers, law students, environmental activists, researchers, media persons and citizens who are concerned about environment issues.
To confirm your participation and for more information contact:
9805461948/9816264754 or email us at info@himdhara.org
website: www.himdhara.org
