We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 July 2021
INTRODUCTION
Laws for the prevention and control of pollution have been part of centralised environmental law in India since the 1970s. Parliamentary documents state that before the enactment of these laws, pollution control was mostly carried out through the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, the Factories Act, 1948, and the Merchant Shipping Act, 1958. The enactment of the first law specifically dealing with pollution is attributed directly to India's commitment to the Stockholm Conference on Human Environment in June 1972. Reports of high-level committees record, ‘it was considered appropriate by Government to have uniform laws all over the country for broad environmental problems endangering the health and safety of the people as well as of the country's flora and fauna’.
The legal framework for pollution control relies on a conditional consent-based system to regulate polluting projects and processes. Through this system, pollution laws regulate emissions, effluents and toxicity of industrial processes and projects within limits set by the law. The permissible pollution standards are either specific to types of industries such as coal power, manufacturing and construction or types of raw materials being used in industrial processes including asbestos, iron ore and mercury. These standards apply across locations and on projects based on their size and production capacity. For instance, pollution norms apply to the construction of mini dam projects as well as large nuclear facilities. Specific norms also apply to the entire life cycle of an industrial process from pre-construction to end of operations.
Pollution control boards (PCBs) at central, state and regional levels implement pollution laws. These boards set parameters for the permissible levels of pollutants in the air, water or land. Individuals and organisations are expected to invest in pollution control equipment and infrastructure to keep discharges and emissions within the permissible levels. The pollution levels of projects or processes are to be regularly monitored by devices installed for collecting data on quality and quantity of emissions and discharges. In recent years, monitoring data is made available to the PCB regulators through continuous online real-time emission monitoring systems.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
