Page 128 - Built Expressions - Online Construction Magazine - November 2014 Issue

Techno-Crate or that ecosystem resilience has 2012 and 2013 have an additional Responsibilities of Business by the increased. There are a number of faws chapter on ‘Sustainable Development Ministry of Corporate Affairs and and weaknesses related to how these and Climate Change’, but linkages using frameworks such as that of targets are being addressed (Kohli and with other chapters remain weak or the Global Reporting Initiative,8 Menon 2005, Kohli et al 2009, Kothari absent. but this is still very preliminary 2011 & 2012, Saldanha et al 2007): • There is no national land–water use and piecemeal, and in any case not • Measures like EIA/environmental plan, which could specify priorities mandatory. and forest clearance have remained on how various kinds of lands and • Forest lands are being diverted for piecemeal (for example, missing regions are to be used in a way that industrial, developmental and other out on sectors like tourism), badly would ensure ecological (and related projects at an increasing rate in the implemented, and so flled with livelihood) security. As a result of this, last couple of decades. The same is holes that it has been easy for the even the most fragile and ecologically possibly true of coastal areas, though most destructive projects to slip crucial areas are subject to damaging fgures are not readily available through. activities— land use changes such as in the case of forests. Fisheries • There are no procedures for as from agriculture to industry are exploitation has reached proportions assessing the cumulative impacts undertaken with little heed for their already resulting in decline in fsh of related projects (like a series of consequences, often at the behest of stocks in parts of the Indian Ocean hydro projects on a single river), those interested in ‘real estate’ values which are near the shore. Productive nor for assessing the impacts of rather than production of goods, and agricultural lands are being diverted sectors (such as the mining or power water sources crucial for drinking and to SEZs, industry, and other such sector as a whole), nor are there agriculture are diverted to industries. uses, or from food crops to non-food any procedures for social impact • There is no set of indicators cash crops. In all these cases there assessment (which is related to on sustainability in use by the are no comprehensive measures to environmental impacts). Planning Commission or any other ensure that sustainability is achieved. • During the process of putting together government body at the center or in Even legislations such as the Forest Five Year Plans, annual budgets, and the states. There is some reporting Conservation Act or the Coastal macroeconomic measures that drive on sustainability by corporations and Zone Regulation notifcation under the country’s development process, organizations, following up on the the Environment Protection Act are there is absolutely no assessment National Voluntary Guidelines on observed more in the breach. of their environmental impacts. Social, Economic, and Environmental As mentioned earlier, available Nor does sustainability get built into the design of macroeconomic policies (such as taxing speculative fnance that has a bearing on the environment, or heavily taxing mining activities); environment is mostly an afterthought or an aside. • Despite repeated talk and recommendations at many policy forums, natural resource limits as a constraint or framework within which economic planning should take place (including even through the limited approaches of natural resource accounting or budgeting) have never been employed. • The annual Economic Survey of the Government of India deals with environment in a handful of pages as a separate section, with little or no interconnections drawn with the economic sectors that form the bulk of the report; the Surveys of November 2014vember 2014 PG 128 Built Expressions V Vol: 3 Issue: 11ol: 3 Issue: 11 No