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Articles by Kanchi KohliSubscribe to Kanchi Kohli

From Impact Assessment to Clearance Manufacture

Vol. 44, Issue No. 28, 11 Jul, 2009
Kanchi Kohli, Manju Menon

The newly appointed environment minister, Jairam Ramesh's statement supporting industry demands to speed up environmental clearance for development projects is unfortunate as it will weaken the already inadequate procedures for environmental impact assessment. Not only will this be calamitous for nature and the communities living at the project sites, it will also lead to delays as the affected people challenge such clearances in courts of law. The better course would be to strengthen the environmental clearance process and make it transparent.

National Biodiversity Action Plan

Vol. 44, Issue No. 20, 16 May, 2009
Ashish Kothari, Kanchi Kohli

Over the last few years the Ministry of Environment and Forests has become a rubber stamp for the most destructive and unsustainable process of "development" unleashed in India. Several environmental regulations have been systematically re-engineered to fall in line with the status quo of the great green cover-up. The National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan was just another victim of this process, dumped because it recommended uncomfortable steps necessary to reorient the economy and polity towards greater sustainability, accountability and democracy.

Re-engineering the Legal and Policy Regimes on Environment

Vol. 43, Issue No. 23, 07 Jun, 2008
Kanchi Kohli, Manju Menon

Environment impact assessment was supposed to be a critical tool in environmental decision-making. But it has been re-engineered to severely reduce its usefulness as an instrument for public participation in decision-making. This article, written against the backdrop of proposals for a new coastal regulation zone notification, analyses the different characteristics of environmental regulations and the new environment policy, and shows how a new perspective facilitates speedy clearance of projects that affect people's livelihoods and the environment.

Environmental Decision-making:Whose Agenda?

Vol. 42, Issue No. 26, 30 Jun, 2007
Kanchi Kohli, Manju Menon

Despite revisions in the environment impact assessment notification in 2006, the deficiencies have not been overcome. As a result, environment impact assessments, which assess a project by technical means as well as public opinion, are hardly thought of as important decision-making tools.

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