Environment

Section 2(a) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 provides that environment includes water, air and land and the inter-relationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property. Section 2(c) of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 adopts the same words. The definition is inclusive and ecological: it covers not only the three media but also their relationship with living beings and with property.

The definition supports the rest of the 1986 Act. An environmental pollutant is any solid, liquid or gaseous substance present in such concentration as may be or tend to be injurious to the environment (Section 2(b)), and environmental pollution is the presence of any environmental pollutant in the environment (Section 2(c)). A hazardous substance is one liable to cause harm to human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism, property or the environment (Section 2(e)). The Central Government's wide powers to protect and improve the environment flow from these definitions.

The Constitution adds two provisions inserted by the Forty-second Amendment in 1976. Article 48A, a Directive Principle in Part IV, requires the State to endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country. Article 51A(g), a Fundamental Duty in Part IVA, requires every citizen to protect and improve the natural environment, including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures. The Supreme Court has also read the right to a clean environment into Article 21.

The courts have built principles on this base. In Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum v. Union of India (1996) the precautionary principle and the polluter pays principle were declared part of Indian environmental law. In Indian Council for Enviro-Legal Action v. Union of India (1996) polluting industries were made to bear the cost of remedial measures, and in M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath (1996) the public trust doctrine was accepted. Examiners test the definition's components and the Articles 48A and 51A(g) distinction.