In nine months since September, a file containing a proposal seeking environmental approval to upgrade a highway in Sikkim has travelled ab...
In nine months since September, a file containing a proposal seeking environmental approval to upgrade a highway in Sikkim has travelled about 1,500 km from Shillong to Kolkata to Guwahati, before returning to rest in an office in Kolkata. Until last week, the file had not been examined, an official in the environment ministry said.
The story of this file sums up the upheaval sparked by a decision of India’s environment ministry to restructure its regional offices.
On August 19, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change issued a notification for the establishment of 19 Integrated Regional Offices across the country. Until then, the ministry had 10 regional offices.
While proposals seeking environmental and forest clearances for large infrastructure projects are reviewed by the ministry headquarters in New Delhi, the regional offices assess smaller projects that have a limited footprint. For instance, they grant approvals for tree felling on less than 40 hectare of forest land, or ensure that pollution control norms are met by industries like thermal power projects. For this, their staff often travel to a project site to evaluate its impact.
Parallel to this, other organisations that function under the environment ministry, like the Forest Survey of India and the Wildlife Crime...
