NHRC Chairperson, Mr. Justice Arun Mishra expresses serious concern over climate and environment degradation impacting human rights; says time has come to even supervise the supervisory bodies for effective implementation of rules and regulations

New Delhi, 23rd March, 2022

Mr. Justice Arun Mishra, Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, India today expressed serious concern over climate and environment degradation impacting human rights. He was chairing the meeting of the Commission’s first Core Advisory Group on Environment, Climate Change and Human Rights in New Delhi.

Justice Mishra said that it is not understood how despite the enabling laws and rules, the ground situation is not changing much for the good due to ineffective implementation of regulatory measures to check various environmental pollution, which may be impacting climate change and thus the lives of the people. He said that the time has come to supervise the supervisory bodies like various Pollution Control Boards.

He said that the efforts and funds pumped in to clean the Ganges and the Yamuna rivers, without yielding the desired results, are the two most visible and glaring examples of our collective failure to keep our environment clean and pollution free. He questioned how are we going to achieve the Sustainable Developmental goals without fixing the problems related to the environmental hazards, agricultural practices, industrial and domestic waste management, among others.

Justice Mishra said that human beings have not spared even the Mount Everest from pollution, which also requires to be cleaned now. Mindless mining is going on so much so that even Antarctica has also not been spared. He said that development without following norms is not sensible. He expressed concern that according to a recent estimate, in a list of 100 most polluted cities in the world, 63 cities are from India. As part of the global fraternity, we all as individuals have to take up the responsibility to protect and save the planet Earth from environment degradation to ensure that it doesn’t lead to massive climate change impacting lives and ecological imbalances. He said that, “Time has come to act or perish”.

Earlier, highlighting the significance of the Commission’s first Core Advisory Group on Environment, Climate Change and Human Rights, the NHRC Secretary General, Mr. Bimbadhar Pradhan said that there is no doubt that climate change is real and its effects are disastrous. He said that environment degradation is leading to climate change resulting in forced migration of people causing miseries, which need to be given a serious thought to shape up the enabling policies through deliberations.

A gamut of issues concerning environment, clean air and water pollution were discussed as part of the four specific agenda points of discussion, which were as under:

● Gaps in implementation and monitoring of laws, judgments and schemes/initiatives concerning environment, climate change and human rights;

● Best practices in environment management in India and abroad and replication thereof;

● Empowering the local Government and authorities to tackle environmental issues, and

● Protecting the population especially vulnerable sections from the impacts of climate change

Besides the discussions and the presentations in the meeting, the NHRC Chairperson asked the participants to send their specific suggestions identifying the gaps in the laws, rules, regulations and implementation thereof to chalk out recommendations for the way forward to protect environment and check climate change.

The participants included NHRC Members, Mr. Justice M.M. Kumar, Mrs. Jyotika Kalra, Dr. D.M. Mulay, Registrar (Law), Mr. Surajit Dey, Joint Secretaries, Mrs. Anita Sinha and Mr. H.C. Chaudhary, Core Group Members, Dr. M.C. Mehta, Mr. R.R. Shami, IAS (Retd), Mr. Niranjan Dev Bharadwaj, Adjunct Professor, Dr. Promode Kant IFS (retd.), Prof. N.H. Ravindranath, Mrs. Patricia Mukhim and Mr. Sundaram Verma. Mr. Neelesh Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Dr. Prashant Gargava, Member Secretary, Central Pollution Control Board, Mrs. Padma S. Rao, Chief Scientist, CSIR-NEERI, Nagpur, Mr. B. Rath, Technical Expert, National Rainfed Area Authority and Mr. R.K. Dogra, Deputy Director, ICFRE also shared their views in the meeting organized in hybrid mode.

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