Environment: As many as 50,000 cases relating to environment were pending trial in courts in 2019, according to the 2021 State of India’s Environment report. This report is an annual publication brought out by Down To Earth in association with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based nonprofit.
In addition to these 50,000 cases, 34,671 environment-related crimes were registered in the same year, with more than 7,000 cases pending police investigation. A similar number of cases (34,503) were reported in 2018, according to the previous edition of the report.
States such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra accounted for 77 percent of India’s wildlife crimes in 2019 while Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and all eight northeastern states reported an increase in instances of wildlife crimes between 2018 and 2019.
The report also highlights the low disposal rate of environment and pollution related cases. On average, the courts disposed of 86 cases every day in 2019 with only 0.13 cases being under the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA).
At this rate, the courts would take more than 20 years to clear the backlog of cases under EPA and more than 13 years for cases under the Wildlife Protection Act, observed the report.
“The maximum numbers of cases that the courts are managing to dispose of currently come under the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act and the Noise Pollution Act. We need to clear the backlog under the other laws as well. Environmental crimes—as the United Nations has pointed out—have the potential to threaten security and sustainable development of nations, and must be dealt with a heavy hand,” Richard Mahapatra, Managing Editor, Down To Earth, said in a statement.
Read this article on why the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Draft 2020 needs to be restructured.