Crafting an inclusive vision on development

The world, India included, is in no position to let down its guard on environmental guardrails or other actions to staunch, if not reverse, the climate crisis

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant remarked on Saturday that while environmental safeguards are non-negotiable, the judiciary does not need to work with a “tunnel vision” or “look at every project as a suspect”. This statement should be framed in the context of a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research that concludes with 98% certainty that the climate crisis has accelerated over the past 10 years. This study corroborates other reports establishing that global temperatures in the past three years (2023-2025) have averaged more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The human cost of these changes is self-evident. The fact is the world, India included, is in no position to let down its guard on environmental guardrails or other actions to staunch, if not reverse, the climate crisis.

Clean air, clear water, and non-degraded soil are non-negotiables, and precarious ecosystems must be protected at all costs. (Raju Shinde/HT Photo)

The 1980s and ’90s, as the CJI pointed out, were when India woke to the perils of a development paradigm that ignored the health of its water sources, soil, and air. The vast amount of litigation, public action, subsequent judicial interventions, and ameliorative policy measures since then responded to science that warned environmental safeguards must be woven into policy rather than posed in antagonistic terms to developmental needs. Studies flagging the climate crisis have confirmed the validity of such an approach to development. Clean air, clear water, and non-degraded soil are non-negotiables, and precarious ecosystems must be protected at all costs: in fact, these are indicators of a developed society. Privileging a development paradigm blind to ecological protection — whether in the name of national security or livelihood issues — misses the point that these are not binaries: Environmental sustenance must be an integral aspect of any development vision. And, that’s no tunnel vision.