Environment

The Environment Ministry starting to become something other than a rubber-stamp body

For a long time, the Election Commission of India was a rubber-stamp body, about which nobody took any notice, and about which political parties really did not take too much notice. And then came the man called TN Seshan, who was to all practical purposes, a former cabinet secretary, put into a smooth official job after retiring from his top secretary status. And boy, did he shake the system. He defied all political parties, putting the Election Commission in the midst of all sorts of action, controversies, and so on; and even then he was frequently censured by the Supreme Court, he established a much more empowered body whom no political party takes for granted, and whose top posts are a matter of debate and controversy.
A similar position is that of the Union Environment Ministry, which was typically seen as a body where politicians were posted who were not being given the top post of home, finance, industry, commerce, food, etc, a ministry which was seen as having somewhat of a low profile; and somewhat irrelevant in a time when there was a lot of frantic development happening, a lot of industrialization happening, and so on.
And then came a number of factors, but I would consider three essential factors – the emergence of the Maoists, the emergence of global warning as a significant issue, and the arrival of Jairam Ramesh as the new environment minister. The Maoists are primarily based in the more tribal, more forested and wilder areas of the country, and in many of the areas of conflict, there is a conflict between the needs of industry and that of the dwellers of the area. Over a period of time, there has been a growing emergence of thought that it is not so simple to simply take resources wherever they are based, but the rights of the tribals and other natives is important, and the environment ministry is a powerful voice in that area. And Jairam Ramesh has not been in the least hesitant to jump into such fights, even when other ministers in the Government are frustrated by the apparent objections shown by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
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Sentencing public officials for preventing flow of pollutants into a river

Indian rivers are filthy, with frequent reports of how the level of contaminants in the rivers of the country (including the holy rivers) is much (many times) over the levels that are fit for humans to even bathe in, forget drinking. As an example, the Yamuna is now considered to be of the same level as a drain in Delhi; at its entry into Delhi, it is bad for human consumption, and by the time it leaves the capital, it is so saturated with filth and pollution that it is considered dangerous to humans. In the last 1-2 years, there have numerous articles about how all the major rivers are India are facing the same level of pollution. In Punjab, the Sutlej had a huge number of fish suddenly dying because of the uncontrolled release of effluents.
Is the situation treatable ? Apparently not if one goes by the efforts undertaken by the Governments (both central and state). What has happened that huge amounts have been spent in the name of of Ganga and Yamuna Pollution control, and yet the rivers have only got more polluted. Refer this article (link) and you can see how the levels of pollution in rivers has increased drastically in the last decade.

In just over a decade, India’s major rivers have been desecrated. Urban filth and industrial pollution are scientific causes, but what drives them is personal greed and administrative indifference. Environmentalists believe that apart from industrial pollution and sewage, the increase in number of slaughterhouse, dhobi ghats, crematoria and slums are the major sources of pollution in these rivers. Every year, religious idols are immersed in rivers which lose a little more of their life as they are choked yet again.
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Climate change and impact on coral reefs and fishing

Climate change, and the efforts needed to counter it, are among some of the hottest topics in the last 1-2 decades; it is also easy to see that the effort to discuss the needs for combating climate change is more than actual work being done to reduce emissions (climate change needs quick action and some aggressive goals of reducing emissions, and they are nowhere near happening). Nations get into political arguments when discussions start; the main major polluter (the United States) refuses to take action because of the feared effect on its economy, Europe looks to somebody for taking the lead on this, and the fast developing nations such as China, India, Brazil, etc who are still current low contributors but will have a much higher impact on emissions going forward want to get funding from the rich before taking action.
And in the middle of all this, the world keeps getting hotter, and the changes that are being made due to the global warming phenomenon keeps on working to its own cycle. Global warming is supposed to affect poor nations much more than it will affect the richer nations (and it will affect nations that are more sea based much more than nations that are bigger land masses) since some of the changes being caused due to global warming are higher sea levels and changes in weather patterns that affect crop cycles. Another way in which global warming directly affects the world food economy is due to the impact on fishing, and a study points out that the rich fishing waters near Southeast Asia will get severely impacted (link to article):

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