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Corona virus impact on environment
According to WHO, Increasing incidents of virus outbreaks are due to
The destruction of wild habitat, forest and their food sources for urbanisation, mining, industry and agriculture expansion means pathogen once confined to wild are better positioned to infect humans.
Elimination of biodiversity and the distance barriers that lent resilience to a human and domestic animal,due to mono cropping and live stock farming system.
Instead learning lessons from the pandemic, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) have considered, and in many cases cleared multiple industrial, mining and infrastructure proposals in critical wildlife habitats, and life and livelihood-sustaining forests. These include…
Etalin Hydropower Project in the biodiversity-rich Dibang valley of Arunachal Pradesh.
A coal mine in Assam’s Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve
Diamond mining in the Panna forested belt in Madhya Pradesh.
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A coal mine to be operated by Adani Enterprises with a coal-fired power plant in Odisha’s Talabira forests
A limestone mine in the Gir National Park, Gujarat.
A geotechnical investigation in the Sharavathi Lion-Tailed Macaque Sanctuary in Karnataka.
More over the draft Environment Impact Assessment is diluting it’s earlier version.
As per the draft, starting a project before obtaining environmental approvals will no longer be a violation, and it can be regularised post-facto.
Provision for ‘public hearing’ is diluted which is an opportunity of voice for the project affected community and environmental and social experts. The notification proposes to exempt a wider range of projects from hearings, including those which authorities can arbitrarily designate as ‘strategic’.
The draft notification says virtually nothing on improving monitoring and compliance with clearance conditions and safeguards.
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