Increase in the forest cover, better monitoring of industrial pollution, representation of country’s interest in COP Paris meet and passage of CAMPA Bill are amongst the key achievements of the Green Ministry during the last two years.
Speaking to the media on Monday, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that 2,000 environmental approvals were granted in two years for unlocking an investment of Rs10 lakh crore with a potential of generating 10 lakh jobs.
Outlining the roadmap for next three years, Javadekar said, a law will be passed for compliance which will act as a deterrent against violation of green norms. Under this law, Javadekar said penalties for violations would be revised and depending on the gravity of violation, the fine would range between Rs10,000 and Rs10 crore.
There would be more stress to use technology for monitoring of the pollution norms all over the country besides building capacities in the local bodies to deal with the compliance of waste management at the grassroot level, said Javadekar.
The Minister also highlighted the various forest initiatives, taken during his tenure which include policy for incentivising tree cover outside forest, corridor protection, water and fodder augmentation in Protected Areas (PAs) besides new schemes like urban forest and School Nursery to increase forest cover. The filing of 6 patents by Institutes of Forest Research, 655 new flora discoveries and 115 new fauna discoveries have further added to the initiatives of forest and biodiversity, he said.
Javadekar underlined the adoption of a scientific formula to review Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index (CEPI) and re-categorisation of industries on the basis of pollution load. The Minister also pointed to the revamping of Waste Management Rules as another major achievement during his regime.
He further informed that there has been an increase in mangrove cover by 100 sq km. Detailed high-resolution coastal map and High Tide line (HTl) have been drawn with state of the art technology.