The National Environment Policy, 2006 is the outcome of extensive consultations with experts in different disciplines, Central Ministries, Members of Parliament, State Governments, Industry Associations, Academic and Research Institutions, Civil Society, NGOs and the Public. We acknowledge and appreciate the keen interest and concern with which they reviewed earlier drafts of this policy and offered inputs and feedback for its improvement. A great deal of published research literature has also been reviewed. We find ourselves unable to acknowledge the respondents individually, or provide specific citations of the literature. The National Environment Policy seeks to extend the coverage, and fill in gaps that still exist, in light of present knowledge and accumulated experience. It does not displace, but builds on the earlier policies. The principal objectives of this policy relate to current perceptions of key environmental challenges and may evolve over time. They aims: To protect and conserve critical ecological systems and resources, and invaluable natural and man-made heritage, which are essential for life support, livelihoods, economic growth, and a broad conception of human well-being. To ensure equitable access to environmental resources and quality for all sections of society, and in particular, to ensure that poor communities, which are most dependent on environmental resources for their livelihoods, are assured secure access to these resources. To ensure judicious use of environmental resources to meet the needs and aspirations of the present and future generations. To integrate environmental concerns into policies, plans, programmes, and projects for economic and social development. To ensure efficient use of environmental resources in the sense of reduction in their use per unit of economic output, to minimize adverse environmental impacts. To apply the principles of good governance (transparency, rationality, accountability, reduction in time and costs, participation, and regulatory independence) to the management and regulation of use of environmental resources. To ensure higher resource flows, comprising finance, technology, management skills, traditional knowledge, and social capital, for environmental conservation through mutually beneficial multi-stakeholder partnerships between local communities, public agencies, the academic and research community, investors, and multilateral and bilateral development partners. A developing society provides numerous challenges in the economic, social, political, cultural, and environmental arenas. All of these coalesce in the dominant imperative of alleviation of mass poverty, reckoned in the multiple dimensions of livelihood security, health care, education, empowerment of the disadvantaged, and elimination of gender disparities. The key environmental challenges that the country faces relate to the nexus of environmental degradation with poverty in its many dimensions, and economic growth. These challenges are intrinsically connected with the state of environmental resources, such as land, water, air, and their flora and fauna. Poverty itself can accentuate environmental degradation, given that institutional failures persist. For the poor, several environmental resources are complementary in production and consumption to other commodities (e.g. water in relation to agricultural production, fuel wood in relation to consumption of food), while a number of environmental resources are a source of income or food (e.g. fisheries, non-timber forest produce). It is possible that some site-specific non-forest activities may yield overall societal benefits significantly exceeding that from the environmental services provided by the particular tract of forest. However, large scale forest loss would lead to catastrophic, permanent change in the country's ecology, leading to major stress on water resources and soil erosion, with consequent loss of agricultural productivity, industrial potential, living conditions, and the onset of natural disasters, including drought and floods. In any event, the environmental values of converted forests must be restored, as nearly as may be feasible, to the same publics.
الهند · 2006-05-18