The government’s decision to give blanket exemption from restrictions imposed by Central environment and forest laws for infrastructure projects near the demarcation line with China breaks new ground. The Union government, during the UPA regime, had taken the decision to construct roads in the border region that could take military and civilian supplies right up to the Indian claim line, and airfields as well for military use primarily, but the pace wasn’t quick.
A large number of the planned roads had run up against environment-related laws, causing some frustration among defence planners, especially since the Chinese on their side have long been engaged in building and updating border infrastructure. In fact, they have by now taken the railway up to the high Tibetan plateau. In a military contingency, roads and airfields in this region will prove crucial. This is an important lesson of 1962.
It is the environmental roadblock to laying this physical infrastructure that environment minister Prakash Javadekar did away with in one stroke on Thursday. Henceforth, infrastructure projects falling within 100 km of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and the international border with China, a stretch of some 4,000 km at high altitude for the most part, will only need to get clearances of the state government in which they happen to fall.
The reasonable presumption here is that states won’t create a fuss although they happen to be in the ecologically fragile Himalayan zone. They could, after all, do with the infrastructure being proposed. These will have strong day-to-day civilian use too, especially the roads. In any case, the Himalayan states rely so heavily on Union funding that they are unlikely to ask too many questions, even if they have sharp laws to protect the ecology.
Environmentalists are apt to be critical, though. They will be entitled to wonder if bypassing national environmental legislation in the case of the border regions is the thin end of the wedge with which to pry open similar obstacles relating to economic activity elsewhere in the country, especially in the forested regions of central India where, typically, the mines are, or in coastal areas.
In these cases too, as in the case of the areas bordering China, if reliance is to be placed only on state rather than Central legislation relating to the environment, then it doesn’t make much sense to have a national ministry for the environment with an overarching brief.
As far as relations with China go, however, the newly formed Narendra Modi government is doing well to signal that while India seeks strong bonds of trade and economy with Beijing, it will seek to maintain strong security-related readiness.
