Act And Policies - 2 | Environment for UPSC CSE PDF Download

Salient Features

• Nodal Agency for the implementation is MoTA.
• This Act is applicable for Tribal and Other Traditional Forest Dwelling Communities.
• The Act provides for recognition of forest rights of other traditional forest dwellers provided they have for at least three generations prior to 13.12.2005 primarily resided in and have depended on the forest or forest land for bonafide livelihood needs. A “generation” for this purpose would mean a period comprising of 25 years.
• The maximum limit of the recognizing rights on forest land is 4 ha.
• National Parks and Sanctuaries have been included along with Reserve Forest, Protected Forests for the recognition of Rights.
• The Act recognizes the right of ownership access to collect, use, and dispose of minor forest produce which has been traditionally collected within or outside village boundaries.
• The Act has defined the term “minor forest produce” to include all non-timber forest produce of plant origin, including bamboo, brush wood, stumps, cane, tussar, cocoons, honey, wax, lac, tendu or kendu leaves, medicinal plants and herbs, roots, tubers and the like.
• The Act provides for the forest right relating to Government providing for diversion of forest land for the purpose of schools, hospitals, anganwadis, drinking water supply and water pipelines, roads, electric and telecommunication lines, etc.
• The rights conferred under the Act shall be heritable but not alienable or transferable and shall be registered jointly in the name of both the spouses in the case of married persons and in the name of the single head, in the case of a household headed by a single person and in the absence of a direct heir, the heritable right shall pass on to the next of kin
• The Act provides that no member of a forest dwelling Scheduled Tribe or other traditional forest dwellers shall be evicted or removed from forest land under his occupation till the recognition and verification procedure is completed.
• As per the Act, the Gram Sabha has been designated as the competent authority for initiating the process of determining the nature and extent of individual or community forest rights or both that may be given to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers.

Do you know?
The National Tiger conservation Authority (NTCA) has recommended Nandhaur Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) to be the third tiger reserve in the Uttarakhand after Rajaji and Corbett. The sanctuary is situated between the Gola and Sarda rivers. It is part of the Terai Arc landscape and the shivalik Elephant Reserve.

GREEN HIGHWAYS (PLANTATION, TRANSPLANTATION, BEAUTIFICATION & MAINTENANCE) POLICY - 2015

• India has a total 46.99 lakh kms of road length and out of which over 96214 kms are National Highways, accounting 2% of total road length. The Highways carry about 40% of the traffic load. The Ministry has decided to develop all of existing National Highways and 40,000 kms of additional roads in the next few years as Green Highways.
• The vision is to develop eco-friendly National Highways with participation of the community, farmers, NGOs, private sector, institutions, government agencies and the Forest Department.
• The objective is to reduce the impacts of air pollution and dust as trees and shrubs along the Highways act as natural sink for air pollutants and arrest soil erosion at the embankment slopes. Plants along highway median strips and along the edges reduce the glare of oncoming vehicles which sometimes become cause of accidents. The community involvement in tree plantation directly benefits local people by generating employment. The Panchayats, NGOs and other Self Help Groups (SHGs) will be involved in the process of planting and maintenance. The plant species selected will be region specific depending on local conditions such as rainfall, climate type of soil.
• 1% of the total project cost of all highways projects will be kept aside for the highway plantation and its maintenance, about Rs. 1000 crore per year will be available for plantation purpose. This policy will generate employment oportunities for about five lakh people from rural areas.
• In the new policy, the provisions about the responsibilities attached have also been clearly defined. Now it will be the responsibility of the planting agency to ensure that the condition of the site is good enough for the successful establishment of grasses.
• The monitoring of the plantation stat us has been included as an integral part of the policy, strong monitoring mechanism in place by using ISRO’s Bhuvan and GAGAN satellite systems.
• For Highway projects to be environmentally sustainable, it is necessary that the natural resources lost in the process of Highway construction are restored in one way or the other. This requires that ecological needs are taken into consideration from the stage of project planning and designing to its execution. The Highways developed as green corridors not only sustain biodiversity and regenerate natural habitat but also benefit all stakeholders, from road users to local communities and spur eco-friendly economic growth and development.

Do you know?
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) is awaiting a final nod from the Ministry of Defense (MoD) to start its drone-monitoring project for combating wildlife poaching and human-animal conflict. The NTCA has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) to start monitoring by drones in five tiger reserves (TRs) — Panna, Corbett, Kaziranga, Sundarbans and Sathyamangalam, and the permission being sought is to fly the drones only within the boundary of the core area of these reserves.

Chemical Safety

• Government has notified two rules viz. Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemicals Rules, 1989 and Chemical Accidents (Emergency Planning, Preparedness and Response) Rules, 1996 for ensuring chemical safety in the Country. These Rules delineate the criteria for identification of Major Accident Hazard (MAH) unit, As per these Rules, an off- site emergency plan for a district having MAH unit is required to be in place so as to mitigate the impact of chemical accidents. As per the information received from various Sate and Union Territories, there are 1,861 MAH units in the Country, located in 303 districts.

Coastal Regulation Zone, 2011
In the 1991 Notification the CRZ area was classified as CRZ-I (ecological sensitive),CRZ-II (built-up area), CRZ-III (Rural area) and CRZ-IV (water area). In the 2011 Notification the above classification is retained. The only change is the inclusionof CRZ-IV, which includes the water areas upto the territorial waters and the tidalinfluenced water bodies.
For the very first time, a separate draft Island Protection Zone Notification hasbeen issued for protection of the islands of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweepunder Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

CRZ-I
(i) Ecologically sensitive areas and the geomorphological features that play a primary role in maintaining the integrity of the coast.

• Mangroves, in case mangrove area is more than 1000 square metres, a buffer area of 50 metres shall be provided
• Corals and coral reefs and associated biodiversity
• Sand Dunes
• Mudflats which are biologically active
• National parks, marine parks, sanctuaries, reserve forests, wildlife habitats and other protected areas under the provisions of Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 or Environment (Protection) Act, 1986; including Biosphere Reserves encompassing
• Salt Marshes
• Turtle nesting grounds
• Horse shoe crabs habitats
• Sea grass beds
• Nesting grounds of birds
• Areas or structures of archaeological importance and heritage sites

(ii) The area between Low Tide Line and High Tide Line.The activities permitted in CRZ-I under the 2011 Notification are
(i) No new construction shall be permitted in CRZ-I except

• Projects relating to the Department of Atomic Energy
• Pipelines, conveying systems including transmission lines
• Facilities that are essential for activities permissible under CRZ-I
• Installation of weather radar for monitoring of cyclones movement and prediction by the Indian Meteorological Department
• Construction of trans-harbour sea link and roads on stilts or pillars without affecting the tidal flow of water, between LTL and HTL.
• Development of green field airport already permitted at only Navi Mumbai
• (ii) Between Low Tide Line and High Tide Line in areas which are not ecologically sensitive, the following may be permitted
• Exploration and extraction of natural gas
• Construction of dispensaries, schools, public rain shelter, community toilets, bridges, roads, jetties, water supply, drainage, sewerage which are required to meet the needs of traditional inhabitants living within the biosphere reserves after obtaining approval from concerned CZMA.
• Salt harvesting by solar evaporation of seawater.
• Desalination plants
• Storage of non-hazardous cargo such as edible oil, fertilizers and food grain within notified ports
• Construction of trans-harbour sea links, roads on stilts or pillars without affecting the tidal flow of water.

CRZ-II
The areas which are developed upto or close to the shoreline and falling within municipal limits.
Buildings are permissible on the landward side of the existing road, authorized structure or hazardous line where there are no authorised structures. Other activities such as desalination plants and storage of non-hazardous cargo are also permissible.

CRZ-III
The areas that are relatively undisturbed and do not fall undereither in Category I or II and also include rural and urban areas that are not substantially developed.
All permissible activities for CRZ-III as listed in the CRZ Notification,1991 are retained in the Notification. Between 0-200 metres from HTL is a No Development Zone where no construction shall be permitted. Only certain activities relating to agriculture, horticulture, gardens, pasture, parks, play field, forestry, projects of Department of Atomic Energy, mining of rare minerals, salt manufacture from seawater, facilities for receipt, storage, regasification of petroleum products and liquefied natural gas, facilities for generating power by non-conventional energy sources and certain public facilities may be permitted in this zone.
Between 200-500 metres of HTL, construction and repair of houses of local communities, tourism projects including green field airport at Navi Mumbai,facilities for receipt, storage, degasification of petroleum products and liquefied natural gas, storage of non-hazardous cargo, desalination plants, facilities for generating power by non-conventional energy sources are permissible

CRZ-IV
The aquatic area from low tide line upto territorial limits including the area of the tidal influenced water body.
In CRZ-IV areas, there is no restriction on the traditional fishing and allied activities undertaken by local communities. However, no untreated sewage, effluents or solid waste shall be let off or dumped in these areas. A comprehensive plan for treatment of sewage generating from the city must be formulated within a period of one year from the date of issue of this Notification and be implemented within two years thereafter
Significant new provisions in the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification, 2011
(i) The entire water area which includes 12 nautical miles in the sea and the entire water area of a tidal water body such as creek, river, estuary will be regulated by the Notification.
(ii) In order to safeguard livelihood and property of local communities including the infrastructure along the coastal areas the hazard line has been introduced which will be demarcated by the offices of the Survey of India.
(iii) Keeping in view the environmental and social issues, special dispensation has been provided to Greater Mumbai, Kerala, Goa and Critically Coastal Vulnerable Areas such as the Sunderban.
(iv) In view of the erosion experienced a long the coastal areas due to man-made interventions the shoreline will be mapped using up-to-date satellite images and the shorelines will then be subsequently classified as ‘high eroding’,‘medium eroding’ and ‘low or stable stretches’. No foreshore development would be permissible in high eroding areas.
(v) To meet the increasing demands of housing for fishing communities and other traditional coastal communities, the No Development Zone which is of 200 metres from the High Tide Line is being reduced to 100m.

Island Protection Zone Notification, 2011
Why is a separate Island Protection Zone Notification, 2011 required?
There are about 500 islands in Andaman & Nicobar and about 30 in Lakshadweep. These two groups of oceanic islands are home to some of the country’s most thriving biodiversity hotspots. The A&N Islands are known for their terrestrial and marine biodiversity including forest area which covers 85% of the Andaman and Nicobar geographical area, while, Lakshadweep is a coral island. The geographical areas of these islands are so small that in most of the cases the 500 metres Coastal Regulation Zone regulations overlap. Hence, a separate Notification is being issued which takes into account the management of the entire island(except for four islands of A&N which include North Andaman, Middle Andaman,South Andaman and Great Nicobar).
The main objectives of the IPZ Notification, 2011 are:

• To ensure livelihood security to the fishing communities, tribals and other local communities living in the coastal areas
• To conserve and protect coastal stretches and
• To promote development in a sustainable manner based on scientific principles, taking into account the dangers of natural hazards in the coastal areas and sea level rise due to global warming