UNIT 23 ENVIRONMENTAL

LEGISLATION
Introductior
Objectives

Need for Legislation

Existing Legislation
The Insect~cideAct
The Wildlife (Protection) Act
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act
The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act
The Environment (Protection) Act

Drawbacks in Environmental Legislation and Difficulties in its Enforcement

Drawbacks in Environmental Legislation
Difficulties in the Enforcement of Environmental Legislation

Bhopal Case
Summary
Terminal Questions
Answers

23.1 INTRODUCTION
In the earlier units of this course you have learnt that ever since human society has
progressed from hunting-gathering stage, man has started altering the natural
environment in the pursuit of creating an economic, social and cultural environment
of this choice. This has resulted in the depletion of natural resources, degradation of
land and,pollution of water and air. Urbanisation has also led to noise poUution.
Hazardous technology in chemical and nuclear power plants, storage and
transportation of toxic radioactive materials and nuclear wastes have brought havoc
and. mass casualities in several parts of the world. In order to protect ourselves, the
animal and plant life and the environment from destruction, numerous laws have been
enacted at the national and international levels. In this unit, we will discuss these lpws
relating to environment. The coverage includes common law rules applicable to
environmental issues, legislation on water and air pollution and the comprehensive
Environment (Protection) Act of 1986. Some sections of this unit are devoted to an
analysis of the institutional structures and the problems of law enforcement. The legal
aspects of Bhopal gas tragedy have also been discussed.

Objectives
After reading this unit, you will be able to:
explain the need for the dnvironmenta~legislation
r discuss various Acts enacted for the protection of environment
explain the difficulties ir! the enforcement of the environmental legislation
discuss in.detai1 the legal aspects of the Bhopal gas tragedy.

23.2 NEED FOR LEGISLATION

You have learnt in the previous units that depletion of the ozone layer, the increasing
rate of species extinction, disposal of toxic and nuclear wastes in the vulnerable areas
of the planet, the loss of forests and of arable soil at an alarming rate are a few of the
many global environmental changes that will affect the survival of the present and
future generations. As it has been said, we do not inherit the environment from our
.
forefathers, we borrow it from future generations. Each individual's life today
depends on the performance of many other individuals. For example, carelessness in
welding or in maintenance in a nuclear reactor or chemical plant could kill thousands
and hundreds of thousands of people not only in the plant and its vicinity but even at
.
a'trclck driver or a rail road engineer
a considerable r' -rar.ce away from ~ t Similarly.

could cause mass deaths and environmental destruction through carelessness while
transporting dangerous wastes from chemical plants or a nuclear reactor. The chance
of serious accidents that could wipe out human, animal and
life and destroy the
environment have steadily increased. An urgent need for collaborative action on a
global level has long been felt.
In 1972, representatives of 113 world governments assembled in Stockholm to
.
participate in the United Nations Conference od Human Environment. The
stockholm conference proclaimed that:
"The protection and improvement of human environment is a major issue which
affects the well-being of people and economic development throughout the
world and it is the duty of all governments and people to exert common effort
for the preservation and improvement of human environment, for the benefit of
all people and their posterity."
Many countries have th'erefore introduced control mechanisms to deter and punish
the enterprises violating the environment. They have enacted special criininal laws or
amended their penal codes by creat~ngnew criminal laws in order to prosecute the
most flagrant offenders through the criminal prosecution system. The Japanese law
for the punishment of crimes relating to environmental pollution was the first such
step. Penal codes of the Federal Republic of Germany, German Democratic Republic
(as it then was), Hungary, Portugal, Spain and Brazil, soon followed. Countries that
do not legally distinguish between regulatory offences and crimes, such as Canada and
the United States, have created new regulations related to crimes dealing with flagrant
violations and provided stiff punishment with fines and prison sentences to violators.
India was the first country to impose a constitutional obligation on the State and
citizens to protect and improve the environment as one of the primary duties. Article
48A of the Indian Constitution provides:
"The state shall endeavour to protect and improveathe environmeht and to
safegaurd forests and wildlife of the country."
Article 5 1A provides:
"It shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve thenatural
environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife and to have compassion
for living creatures."
So you see, the Constitution of India has provisions to make environmental
legislations. The central, state and the concurrent lists of subjects on which
Parliament and State Legislatures are empowered to legislate span: noise control, land
improvement, irrigation, town planning, slum clearance, housing schemes, pest
control, smoke control, water pollution, forests, wildlife, recreation etc. Consequently,
laws have been enacted on some of the subjects, such as:
The Factories Act, 1948
S h e Insecticides Act, 1968
The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974
T k Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution)
The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980

Let, 1981

The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and

The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
In the following section we will study some of these environmental laws and also a
number of numerous judgements made by the High Courts and the Supreme Court of
India in relation to the environmental protection.

SAQ I
I) Fill in the blanks:
i) The Stockholm Conference was held in the yeai . . . . . . . . . . . . to discuss the
measures to be taken for the preservation and improvement of the . . . .. . . . .
ii) . . . . . . . . . . . was the first country to impose a constitutional obligation on the
Satateand citizens to protect and imrove the environment as one the primary
duties.

Environmental kg&btlon

Management of ~nvironment-11

11) List ten subjects related to environment on which the Parliament end State
legislatures are empowered to legislate.
i)
iii)
v)
vii)
ix)

.........,......................
................................
.................................
............ .............;...:.
. .................. .........
;

;
.

ii)
iv)
vi)
viii)
x)

..............................;.
.................................
.................................

................................
..................................

23.3 EXISTING LEGISLATION

The first casualties and human sufferings as a direct result of environmental pollution
were reported from the industrial areas of Japan in the late 1950s when scores of
people died of mercury and cadmium poisoning and hundreds contracted the painful
mina mata and iGi itai disease. Until then there wis no real concern over water and
air pollution. Mina mata and itai itai diseases galvanised Japan and the Western
world to immediate legislative action resulting in the introduction of environmental
protection laws and'establisliment of environment ministries in government
administration. Environmental laws deal with the problems of pollution by a set of
rules under ton law as nuisance, negligence and liability. If you are affected by
poisonous fumes coming from a neighbouring industrial unit, or if you are constantly
bothered by uribearable noise in the neighbourhood, or if your neighbour interferes
with your leisure activities, or makes your life miserable, for instance, by keeping
things or animals in his courtyard which give out offensive odour, you could go to a
court of law and get your errant neigbbour pay for his offensive conduct under the
tort law of nuisance. The court, of course, will do a bit of balancing of interests;
consider the legality or otherwise of the action and the reasonable and unreasonable
impact on the victim, before issuing an injunction followed by the award of damages.
The law governing liability for breach of duty to neighbours in the use of land, for
instance, was laid down in the famous Rylands vs. Fletcher case in England way back
in 1968. The case concerned the use of one's property which adversely affected the
neighbour's enjoyment of l!;s property. The court held that an exercise of property
rights which resutled in the cynailment of another's similar rights was actiqnable and
gave rise to strict liability. The uses ohthe law laid down in this case in the context of
environmental issues are obvious.
Under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which codifies the common law concept of
negligence, if someone comits an act or omission which causes injury to another, the
first person is considered guilty of an unlawful and negligent act. Polluting of water of
a public spring or a reservoir so as to render it unfit for human consumption is made
a criminal offence under Section 277 of the IPC. Negligent conduct with respect to
poisonous substances endangering human life or likely to cause injury'is a criminal
offence under Section 284. The Union Carbide of Ixidia could have been held guilty
under this section for causing the Bhopal gas tragedy. These and other sections under
the IPC bnd the Criminal Procedure Code contain a npmber of provisions that couid
be used to combat pollution of land, water and air.
The Constitution of India contains several environmental prescriptions. Before
discussing them, however, it is necebsarv to point out that the power to tackle
environmental problems is considerably affected by the federal structure of the Indian
polity. The division of legislative and administrative power between the Union and the
States isspelt out in three lists, the Union list, the States list and the Concurrent list.
The Union is sup.reme over the subjects mentbned in the first list: the States similarly
enjoy complete competence to legislate on any matter mentioned in the second list;
and both the Union and States have concurrent jurisdiction on matters contained in
the third list. The Union enjoys a certain primacy over states in that, according to
Article 246, its legislation in the Union and the concurrent list prevails over state
legislation in the event of a clash. Also, under Article 248, the Parliament has
residuary powers to legislate on any matter not covered in the three lists.

Most of'the constituents of the environment, like land, water, forests, etc. are under
the purview of the states. For a variety of reasons, principally financial, the states are
not usually in a position to take effective action against pollution, or in promoting
environmentally sound management strategies for conservation and development of
these resources. It has thus become necessary for the Union Government to intervene
when the said resources are threatened with serious depletion. As shown in the
preceding units, the state of water polluti6n and forest resource depletion and
pollution of the air in India is such that the Union Government had to initiate a series
of measures to arrest the damage done to these resources. Two provisions in the
Constitution came handy to the Union for this pqpose. The first provision is Article
242 under which the Union is empowered to pass legislation on matters mentioned in
the state list, if so requested by two or more states. The Union government utilised
this provision to pass various Acts in order to protect the population, present as well
as the future generations, and the environment from what appears to be an inexorable
move towards self-destruction. In the following sections we discuss the various Acts
passed by the Government of India.

23.3.1 The Insecticide Act

You know that pesticides are basically toxic chemicals and their use is inherently
accompanied by hazards and ecological consequences. Being aware of the grime
responsibility of protecting the health of citizens and the environment, the
Government of India enacted the Insecticide Act in 1968. This was enforced from
1971 to regulate import, manufacture, sale, transport, distribution and the use of
insecticides with a view to preventing risk to human beings and animals. Several
agencies, such as the Central Insecticide Board, the Pesticide Registration Committee,
the Pesticide Environment Pollution Advisory Committee, the Central Insecticide
Laboratory, the Committee to Ban/ Restrict the use of Pesticides, were created for
effective enforcement of this Act.

23.3.2 The Wildlife (Protection) Act

In Units 7 and 20, we have mentioned that the most serious threat to wildlife is posed
by habitat destruction. Expanding agriculture, industry and urbanisation etc. are the
causes of this destruction. Realising the importance of the wildlife resource and in
order to prevent the gene erosion, our country has taken up steps by setting up an
Indian Board of Wildlife (1952), creation of Wildlife Parks and Sanctuaries,
enactment of an All India Wildlife Protection Act (1972), becoming a party to the
Convention of International Trade in Endangered species of Fauna and Flora
(CITES, 1976), launching a national component of the UNESCO's Man and the
Biosphere Programme (1971) and by starting conservation projects for individual
endangered species like Hunga1(1970), Lion (1972), Tiger (1973), Crocodiles (1974),
and Brown-antlered Deer (198 1).

The Wildlife (Protection) Act governs wildlife conservation and protection of

endangered species. The Act prohibits trade in rare and endangered species. The
wildlife Act is adopted by all states except Jammu and Kashmir, which has its own
Act. The Centre provides financial assistance to states for: (i) strengthening
management and protection of infrastructure of national parks and sancturies;
(ii) protection of wildlife and control of poaching and illegal trade in wildlife
products; (iii) captive breeding programmes for endangered species of wildlife;
(iv) wildlife education and interpretation; and (v) development of selected zoos.

23.3.3 The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act

I

The Water Act defines water pollution, prescribes penalties and establishes an
administrative machinery, called the Water Pollution Boards, at the Central and State
level in order to control and prevent pollution of water. The coverage of the Act, is
quite comprehensive in that it includes streams, rivers water courses, inland waters,
subterranean waters, and sea and tidal waters under state jurisdiction. The State and
Central Boards are widely represented and are given comprehensive powers to advise,
coordinate and provide technical assistance in the prevention and control or
abatement of water pollution. More importantly, these Boards are entrusted with the
task of monitoring the state of water pollution in the country and laying down
~ t n n r l ~ r r nf
l c rrnrm;co;hln

~ n r;mnnrm;~r;hln
l
I e r , n l a nf

n ~ l l r l t ; n n

Envlron&tPl

d"

Legislation

Management of Environment-11

The Water Act prohibits dumping of polsonous, noxious or polluting matter.into

streams and wells, as well as any activity which impedes the proper flow of the water
of a stream causing aggravation of pollution due t o other causes. The Act subjects the
discharge of sewage or trade effluents intogtreams and wells to the prior consent of
the Boards. The Boards are authorised to take action against polluters by imposing
conditions aimed at discouraging pollution and can prosecute the polluter. In
practice, however, the Boards have not been as effective as was expected because of
.
budgetary constraints, paucity of expertise, and inability to take punitive action
against the big industrial polluters. Also, the already over-burdened judiciary has not
been of great help to the Boards in combating polluters and pollution. According to
ihe Sixty First Report of the Estimates Committee (April, 1988), out of a total
number of 1602 prosecutions launched under the Act in 21 states, only 288 have been
decided and 1314 are still pending. The story is slightly different in the case of the Air
Act which we will discuss next. The total number of cases filed against the violators
under the Air Act is 202, of which 97 have been decided by the courts and the rest are
periding. The difference in figures is obviously attributable to the vintage of the Acts
(Water Act 1974, Air Act 1981) than to the vigour of the bureaucracy, because it is
the same for both the Acts.

23.3.4 The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act

The Air Act was passed in 198 1 to mainly regulate and control emissions from
automobiles and industrial plants. The Central Boards for the Prevention and Control
of Water Pollution is authorised to implement and enforce, the Act also. This body
lays down standards for the quality of air, Under Section 19, the Central Board is
given powers mainly to coordinate the activities of the state Boards. After
con9ultation with the state Board, the state government may declare any area within
the state as "air pollution control area". and prohibit the use of any fuel other than
approved fuel in the area causing air pollution. Further, no person shall, without the
previous consent of the state Board operate any industrial plant involving industries
specified in the schedule in air pollution control area.

23.3.5 The Environment (Protection) Act

The Environment (Protection) Act was pa'ssed by the Parliament on 23 May 1986.
The Act refers to the Stockholm Confe~enceof 1972 and is based on Article 253 of
the Constitution. By virtue of this Act, the Union Government has a r m 4 itself with
considerable powers deemed necessary for the prevention, control and abatement of
environmental pollution. The powers include, coordination of action by states,.
planning and execution of nationwide prbgrammes, laying down environmental
quality standards, specially those gover ling ernissi6n or discharge of environmental
pollutants, placing restrictions on the Ic.cation of industries and so on. The powers
claimed are indeed comprehensive; the coverage includes handling of hazardous
substances, prevention of environmental accidents, research, inspection of
.units, establishment of laboratories, dissemination of information, etc. A whole set of
administrative procedures and'structures are envisaged under the Act. If implemented
in letter and spirit. the Act will convert the Ministry of Environment and Forests into
a super ministry. controlling the entire gamut of-industrial and other developmental
activities. A timorous attitude in the enforcement of this Act could lead only to
environmental window-dressing of Acts passed by t h e ~ o v e r n m e n t .

SAQ 2
I) Explain briefly in the space given below the function of Wildlife (Protection) Act
(1974).

23.4 DRAWBACKS IN ENVIRONMENTAL

LEGISLATION AND DIFFICULTIES IN ITS
ENFORCEMENT

I
i
1

I
I

I
I

In the earlier sections of this unit you have learnt about various Environment Acts. In
this section we will study about the drawbacks of the environmental legislation and
difficulties in its enforcement.

23.4.1. Drawbacks in Environmental Legislation

Legislation is often not perfect. There are various drawbacks in the Acts enacted in
relation to environment. We will not like to go into a lengthy legal discussion, but
illustrate the points by giving some examples.
Forests constitute a vital resource of the nation. It is a scientifically established fact
that the forest cover should be at least 113 of the land area for a healthy state of
environment. Vegetation generates oxygen. Trees hold the soil together, and in India
the forests provide livelihood to millions of tribals and villagers living in and around
forests. Experts and the mass media have brought to the attenticin of the decision
makers and the public at large, the fact that the forest cover of the country has been
rapidly shrinking. Some estimates put the present coverage at not more than 12% of
the land area. Fuelstarved villagers, greedy forest contractors and corrupt officials are
the proven culprits.
.
Some time back, the Government came up with a well-meaning but potentially
draconian Forest Bill. There was virtually an uproar against the Bill-principally on
two grounds. One, that the Bill would make criminals of all tribals living in and off
the forests, because it prohibited the taking of all the produce, including leaves h d
fruits from the forests. Two, the proposed Bill converted forest officers into judges
and executioners at the same time. The bill failed to attract public support because it
adopted an oppressive colonial model of law.

The aborted Forest Bill and the raging controversies over the present and proposed
conservation zones, which strike at the root of the right of the villagers to graze their
cattle, demonstrate that the central concern of all law-making should be man. Laws
aimed at protecting the trees, animals and birds cannot in the process treat people as
marginal. The new National Forest Policy resolution adopted by the Parliament on 7
December, 1988 strives to make amends; it is too early to judge its impact and
effectiveness.
It may be mentioned here that the' Directive Principles of State Policy obligate the
state to its people certain basic social and economic rights which were described by
Justice Krishna Iyer as follows:
"The developmental directives of our Constitution are geared to social and
economic justice."
Again, the problems of individual-or-group inspired environmental litigation are
different. The Water and Air Pollution Acts do not permit individuals and groups
direct access to courts. The Central and State Boards are to act as conduits of public
grievances. In other words, individuals have no locus standi under the said Acts. To a
certain degree, this lamentable lacunae have been plugged by the latest Environment
Protection Act. The number of suits admitted by the'higher courts by way of the
public interest litigation procedure has made the rigid position of the Acts, denying
locus standi to individuals, untenable.
How successful has been this category of environmental litigation? Some, like the
Silent Valley, the Doon Valley, the Delhi gas leakage cases, etc. have attracted media
and public attention. But the same cases have also thrown up intractable issues of
standing, burden of proof, expert testimony and the very competence of the ordinary
courts to handle environmental disputes. The rules of evidenct courts to handle
environmental disputes. The rules of evidence relating to burden of proof,
particularly, have created an uncaoscionable situation. An individual or even a
committed group of individuals cannot be expected to submit authoritative proof of
objectionable radiation level, for instance. The inequality of the resources available to

EnvironmentalLegidah

of EnvimnmenQ-n

the individual and the establishment make a mockery of the rules of evidence in
environmental disputes.

23.4.2 Difficulties in Enforcement of Environmental Legislation

You must be aware that despite all this legis'lative activity the state of the environment
in India continues to be gloomy. The rivers and the lakes continue to be choked with
sewage and industrial waste. The air quality in some major cities has gained the
dubious distinction of being worse than that of the American cities like Chicago and
New York. Forests continue to disappear, and the consequent loss of soil has led to
the scourge of floods with sickening regularity. What can the country do to reverse
the process and restore a balanced state of the environment?
Although the legislative measures taken and the administrative set-up is sufficieritly
indicative of the Government's concern, the implementation does not reflect a sound
appreciation of the issues involved in eco-management and development.
Environment is a resource-perhaps the most precious of all the Earth's resources. It
should be treated as such.,The measures adopted by the Government until now do not
reveal an equal emphasis.on the management and development aspects of this vital
resource. Often these measures reflect a fire-brigade approach-rushing to the spot of
fire, after it breaks out. The strategy should lay equal emphasis on attacking the cause
of fires. An ounce of prevention in the field of environment is literally worth a gallon
of cure.
Take for example the river pollution in India. It is well known that the major source
of pollution of rivers is domestic sewage which municipalities nonchalantly dump in
the nearest rivers. Ninety per cent of the pollution of Ganga stems frbm the 100-odd
littoral municipal waste dumpings. The colossal cleaning-up operation, Ganga Action
Plan, will be an exercise in futility if it is not accompanied by a massive effort to
prevent the municipalities from dumping their wastes in the river. Every one knows
that the technology for treating municipal wastes exists. But it costs money and most
of the, municipalities cannot afford it.
If the new Environment (Protection) Act is taken seriously, all the municipalities
abutting the Ganga will have to be prosecuted. The Act, rightly, makes no distinction
between private and public polluters. But that would be taking a very restrictive view
of the law. The more modern view is that the law must guide and help people and
establish a trend of acceptance. Environmental law has little chance ofkquiring
effectiveness unless accompanied by a whole set of promotional measures, ranging
from direct financial subsidies to cost sharing, for example, in installing treatment
plants.
Litigation is an expensive affair. Environmental litigation is more expensive than
other types of disputes, since it involves expert testimony, technical evidence and so
on. State Boards will.have to be able to afford the expertise and the administrative
backing. Most of the State Boards suffer from inadequate expertise and funds to
pursue their objectives. There is, therefore, a tendency to seek to exercise gentle
pressure on the polluting industry and pursue settlements outside the courts.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with out-of-court settlement of environmental
disputes. In fact, in some developed countries, like the United States, a preference is
shown toward such a procedure. But in India, officially initiated and sanctioned out
of court settlements may aggravate the perennial pcoblem of corruption. Sharing the
costs of anti-pollution measur -s taken by the industry seems to be a better strategy
than state-sponsored expensive anc lengthy prosecutions.
Admittedly, the state of environment of the country is not rosy; the imperatives of
development have sometimes come into sharp conflict with those of the environment;
the administrative machinery set up to solve the problems of environment has often
failed in itsstask;the laws enacted to meet the challenge have been generally inept. But
these are the failings of a nation wrestling with hundreds of problems on thousands
of fronts. The war of survival 7-fhichis what the sorry state of the nation's
environment poses to the country :quires first and foremost the will to survive. The
Government and, more importantly, the people have demonstrated it in abundance.
The rest is a matter of skill and experience, which we seem to be acquiring slowly but
steadily.

SAQ 3

1)

Explain briefly in the space given below, the drawbacks in envirohmental

'
*legislation, giving one example.

.............I...........................................................

.......................................................................
.......................................................................

.......................................................................
,....................................................................~..*
1

23.5 BHOPAL CASE

In the earlier sections of this unit you have learnt about environmental legislation. In
this section we will read about the Bhopal tragedy which is described as the worst in
industrial history. Bhopal tragedy resulted as a consequence of the sudden
vaporisation and discharge of Methyl lsocyanide (MIC) gas as well as phosgene gas
from the pesticide plant of Union Carb'ide (India) Limited on December 2, 1984 and
resulted in the death of about 5,000 and affected 2,00,000 persons, a quarter of the
city's population. The after effects on the affected people have also been shown to be
very serious.
There 1s strong evidence that the disaster was due to the faulty storage system of the
MIC and the failure of the Union Carbide Corporation to install effective safety
meas~ures.
Union
Carbide is a multi-national corporation based in the United States of America.
.
It has some 138 subsidiaries in 127 countries. Union Carbide has been criticised by
environmentalists in America for its chemical manufactures which are regarded as
terribly hazardous to nature and man. They were not allowed to put up such a factory
in USA.
It is said that the Canadian Government had in 1972 asked the Union Carbide to
wind up its MIC plant on the grounds of pollution and danger to public life. The
same plant was dismantled and installed in Bhopal in 1980, and one wonders why the
centre and the state governments welcomed this death trap which was outlawed tiy
Canada.
In May, 1982, the head office of Union Carbide in Danbury (West Virginia, USA)
had sent three top officials to go into the existing security measures in the Bhopal unit
of the company and report to the head office. After going through various aspects of
safety measures, the experts reported that:
(i) the filling of the MIC tank is done manually and there is no scientific instrument
available for back-up In case of error.
(ii) the pressure gauge on the phosgene tank is out of order and there is no instrument
to indicate the pressure of the gas within the tank.

Further, it is known that MIC gas has to be stored below 8C which means under
refrigeration but the refrigeration plant was out of order for a very long time. The
mechanism for flaring or burning of the gas in case of leakage was also not
operational.
The Union Carbide did not give importance to the report of their experts and install
the effective safety measures. This has resulted in the disaster of December 2, 1984,
which Justice Krishna Iyer calls 'Bhoposhima', being a mini-Hiroshima.
Such criminal negligence of the multinationals in not adopting the necessary safety
mechanisms shows that they consider the developing nations as "pollution havens",
where they can obtain maximum profits at minimum costs, ignoring the lives and
safety of the population in these countries.

Rhbpal offenders, including even officials of Government and Municipal

Corporations and unyuestionaby the staff, high and o w . under the Union Carbide

Management of Envtmnrnmt-ll

(India) may well be caught within the meshes of the penal provision?; Section 284 IPC
is so widely worded and lends itself to such semantic liberty that those who rashly or
negligently permit or start the danufacture of poisons which may endanger human
life or even cause hurt or injury to any.person are culpable. The Carbide culpables,
the reckless officials who licenced the operations or renewed it, are within the punitive
ring. The Government of ~ n d i athrough an Ordinance assumed' powers to file cases in
the USA to claim damages for the victims of Bhopal tragedy. An attempt was in fact
made to file a suit for compensation to the sufferers of this tragedy in the US courts.
It was not admitted on the pretext that Union Carbide (India) is only a subsidiary of
the Union Carbide, registered in India. Therefore, all its liabilities lie in India. Thus in
spite of owning 50% shares, Union Carbide escaped the liability because the Indian
concern is technically not a branch of the parent company based in USA.

Union Carbide also adopted another subterfuge by transferring most of their assets to
another concern, which means that eveh if a case had been admitted in USA, and their
liability proved, they would have hardly anything left in their coffers to pay.
In the mean time a case was filed in the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court
in their judgement granted a sum of $470 million to the' families of the victims, which
was readily agreed to by the Union Carbide. The apparent reason for the ready
agreement by the Union Carbide for the said amount was simpiy because it was much
below the amount they would have to pay if such an accident had taken place in any
developed country let alone the USA. A number of cases were soon filed by individual
victims to this effect;thus causing a further delay even in the distribution of the said
amount. Justice delayed is justice denied is aptly applicable in this particular case.

SAQ 4
Give three reasons for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
i)
.ii)
iii)

......................................................................
........................................................................
................:......................................................

23.6 SUMMARY
You have read in the unit that:
Regulatory measures in the 'form of legislation are needed to check the degradation
of the environment.
Both at national and international levels laws were introduced to stop y3llution.
The Constitution of India has provisions to make environmental legislations. One
of the primary duties of the states and citizens is the obligation to protect and
improve the environment. The Union government utilised this provision to pass
various Acts in order to protect the environment from destruction.
Legislation is not perfect.'It has some drawbacks which come in the way of its
effectjve enforcement. ,
Although the legislative measures are taken and the administrative set-up is
satisfadtory, it is difficult tq enforce the legislation due to shortage of funds, lack of
expertise and noncooperation of the public.
Bhopal gas tragedy took place'due to negligence on the part of the authorities of
the Union carbide, which has resulted in the death of about 5,000 people and
affected more than 2,00,000 people. The Supreme Court of India has sanctioned
$470 million t'owards compensation to the victims, which is actually peanuts.

23.7 TERMINAL QUESTIONS

1) Match the Acts given in Column A with that of their year of enactment given in
Column B.

Environmental Legislation

Management of Environment-11

The filling of MIC tank was done manually and there was no scientific
instrument available for back up in the case of errbr.
ii) The pressure gauge on the phosgene tank was out of order and theqe was no
instrument to indicate the pressure of the gas within the tank.
iii) The refrigeration unit which is required for the storage of MIC gas was o.ut of
order for a very long time.

4) i)
'

Terminal Questions
1) i)
i i)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)
vii)

'

c)
a)
d)
e)
b)
g)
f)

The Water Act prohibits dumping of poisonous, noxious or polluting matter

into streams and wells, as well as any activity which impedes the proper flow
of the water of a stream causing aggravation of pollution. The Water
Pollution Control Boards take action against pollutors.
ii) The Air Act mainly regulators and controls emissions from automobiles and
industries. The Central Board for the Preservation and Control of Water
implements and enforces the Air Act by laying down standards for the quality
of the air.

2) i)

3) In India, the enforcement of legislation on environment is ditficult because of

shortage of funds and lack of expertise require for adopting remedial measures.
Even the public do not cooperate in the enforcement.
4) The Government of India through an Ordinance had assume powers to file cases
in the USA to claim damages for the victims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy. But the US
courts of law did not admit the case under the pretense that Union Carbide
(India) was an autonomous organisation and not a subsidiary of Union Carbide
based in USA. Later, a case was filed in the Supreme Court of India, which
granted a sum of $470 millions to the families of the victims. The amount has not
yet been distributed to victims because the authorities have not yet identified the
victims of the tragedy. Further, a number of cases were soon filed against the
Supreme Court judgement, thus causing a further delay in the distribution of the
amount.