Subject: MOEF, GOI Guidelines (Polluting industries)

How can environmental protection laws and guidelines be diluted... while
those in charge manage to keep their patina of greenness alive?

One good way would be to rely on the fact that 99.99 per cent of all
people concerned with environmental issues have never read either the
environmental acts, or the "guidelines" issued by the Ministry of
Environment and Forests (MoEF) in years gone by.  This allows the MoEF
to win instant popularity with the development gang... by suddenly
allowing polluting industries to be set up within a "7 km. belt around
the periphery of specified wetlands as well as national parks,
sanctuaries and core zones of biosphere reserves."

The earlier guideline was to keep such industries at a distance of 25
kms. from such ecologically fragile areas!

Bittu Sahgal,
Editor, Sanctuary Magazine,
602, Maker Chambers V,
Nariman Point,
Mumbai 400 021

Fax: 022-2874380
email: