Wetland restrictions for industries

The government on Thursday notified new guidelines to protect wetlands by imposing fresh restrictions on setting up industries, pollutant discharge and construction.

Updated on: Dec 3, 2010, 24:13:26 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The government on Thursday notified new guidelines to protect wetlands by imposing fresh restrictions on setting up industries, pollutant discharge and construction.

It also decided to set up a specialised body for protection of these water bodies.

The environment ministry’s Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules identified any water body, expect main river channels, coastal areas and paddy fields, as wetlands, thus any commercial activity in these areas will now be difficult.

The new rules notified under the Environment Protection Act have divided the wetlands into two categories. First are the protected wetlands, which are notified under Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance and the ones falling in the notified eco-sensitive areas. No development activity will be allowed in these areas.

In the remaining wetlands, where reclamation of the wetland, setting up of a new industry or expansion of an existing industry, discharge of affluents and construction of permanent nature will not be allowed.

What the ministry has allowed is withdrawal of water, grazing, treatment of affluent discharged by industries, construction of boat jetties, aquaculture and repair of bridges.

For this, the project proponents will have to take permission of the proposed Central Wetlands Regulatory Authority to implement the rules. They can give permission if the same is necessary in public interest.

The new rules can create a fresh hurdle for many industrial projects, which have been planned in areas now categorised as wetlands.

The objective of the new rules is to protect the wetlands, one-third of which are already degraded. “This is for the first time that legally enforceable rules are being notified for such eco-sensitive areas,” environment minister Jairam Ramesh said.

The states will have to identify the wetlands falling within the definition of the rules within a year.

water wise

New rules divide the wetlands into two categories. First are the protected wetlands, where no activity will be allowed

In the remaining, reclamation of the wetland, setting a new industry or expanding an old one, discharge of affluents and construction won’t be allowed

But the ministry has allowed withdrawal of water, grazing, treatment of discharged affluents and repair of bridges

Ashtamudi Wetland (Kerala), Chilka Lake (Orissa), Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan), Pong Dam Lake (HP), Wular Lake (J&K) fall under the new rules.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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