Javadekar withdrew 2% cess on industrial projects near sanctuaries, national parks

In absence of framework to penalise industries for damaging wildlife, 77 projects cleared with his intervention

NEW DELHI: Former environment minister Prakash Javadekar had in November last year withdrawn an advisory that charged 2% cess on industrial projects coming up near national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, documents accessed by HT revealed.

In the absence of any framework to make industries pay for damage on wildlife, 77 projects have been cleared since Javadekar’s intervention (see box) and 66 have done so without paying.

The Union environment ministry issued an advisory to states last October charging 2% cess on projects coming up near wildlife areas for implementing the ‘Impact Mitigation Plan’, but withdrew it within a month.

“This is serious. How can a working group’s recommendation form a policy without approval from the minister? Stop advisory,” Javadekar’s note to officials dated November 10, 2015, said, documents accessed under RTI Act by Rohit Choudhury of Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) showed.

The decision to issue the “policy advisory” was taken by the Standing Committee (SC) of National Board of Wildlife (NBWL ) — the highest decision making body of the government on wildlife — at a meeting chaired by Javadekar himself on August 18, 2015.

When HT contacted Javadekar, now human resource development minister, his office referred this correspondent to the Director General of Forests in the ministry of environment and forests.

“(Environment) Ministry had withdrawn the communication from the states, in which the recommendation of the group of Additional Director General of Forests (Wildlife), (NBWL) member HS Singh, National Tiger Conservation Authority, etc. was endorsed by SC NBWL. No formal orders for imposing this condition were issued, so question of waiving off does not arise. The matter is under consideration…” Director General of Forests, SS Negi, said in an email response.

However, the October 28, 2015 advisory reviewed by HT categorically instructed states that the recommendations of the NBWL were “to be implemented by all user agencies and authorities” in case of projects coming to NBWL for approval.

Other than Javadekar’s file noting, neither the ministry files nor the two-line withdrawal communication dated November 24, 2015, gave reasons for the U-turn on the original NBWL policy advisory to charge a 2% cess.

“The policy advisory was seen as a way to duck criticism that the government was facing for clearing a record number of projects near protected wildlife habitats. But it turned out that the government doesn’t want the industry to pay even the petty amount for wildlife conservation,” environment lawyer Ritwick Dutta said.

The NBWL approves projects within 10 km of national parks and sanctuaries.

The uniform policy for charging levy on projects coming up in wildlife areas came after NBWL SC asked two cement companies — Ambuja and Jaypee Himachal Cement — to deposit 2% cost of their plants that were slated for expansion near Majathal Wildlife Sanctuary in Himachal Pradesh in 2014.

Only 4.9 per cent of the country’s area is protected for wildlife as national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.

An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment showed in June 2016 that the NDA government had cleared 301 development projects in and around wildlife habitats in the past two years, more than 260 by UPA II in its five-year tenure.