Environmental Governance & Policy in Federal Framework of India

Abstract

Over the last six decades, Centre- relations in India have manifested in different forms for different issues, including internal security, agriculture, revenue, land and natural resources. This has been a reflection of the concerns and developments of the nation as a whole as well as states from time to time. Some of the environmental issues, such as those relating to forests, wildlife and water have been a cause of contention between the centre and state, sometimes influenced or aggravated by factors such as coalition politics, asymmetric federalism, a green judiciary, globalization and the aspirations of states.

India’s National Environment Policy, 2006, sets forth the Principle of Decentralization in order to empower public authorities having jurisdiction at the spatial level at which particular environmental issues are salient, to address these issues. Need for a decentralized approach has been recognized and developed since the time the Indian Constitution came into being. This was given a further thrust with the 73rd and 74th amendments. In this paper, an attempt is made to highlight the centralization and decentralization as a dynamic feature of Indian federal set up. It is described as to in which manner and way this has been dealt with by the Indian constitution and federalism. A broad and holistic approach towards environmental federalism, which includes matters related to forests, biodiversity, rivers, other water bodies, pollution control and abatement, climate change etc.