Restriction of areas, and standards for every discharge: the Environment (Protection) Act power behind the Western Ghats sensitive area draft

Background

A hartal has been called for November 6 by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha across those parts of Palakkad district that the sensitive area draft would cover, with a demand that the draft notification treating stretches of the Western Ghats as an Ecologically Sensitive Area be revised. A notification of that sort draws on one broad section of the Environment (Protection) Act. Under it the Central Government holds the power to take every measure it thinks necessary to protect and improve environmental quality and to prevent, control and abate pollution. The section then lists what those measures can include. One of them is the restriction of areas in which industries, operations or processes shall not be carried on, or shall be carried on only with safeguards, which is what a sensitive area notification does. Others are the laying down of environmental quality standards and of emission or discharge standards, which can differ from source to source, and procedures and safeguards for handling hazardous substances and for preventing accidents that cause pollution.