The Union ministry for environment and forests (MoEF) has effectively cut off its nose to spite its own face. The ministry has obtained from the Delhi High Court a stay on the order of the Central Information Commissioner (CIC) which had asked MoEF to publish a crucial ecological report on the Western Ghats by May 10.
The CIC on April 9 had asked MoEF to “disclose” the ecological report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) in a months’ time. The ministry, in a brazen counter-move, obtained the stay on the CIC’s directions on May 4. All very stealthily.
What the ministry has effectively done is bury the report it itself had commissioned. But the answer to the “why” part of it may lie in the very bogey that the government had raised while denying information to a RTI applicant earlier this year.
The official line bandied at the time was that the “scientific or economic interests of the State” would be affected by “disclosure” (of the report). That’s what the ministry had said while responding to a RTI application filed by a Kerala-based activist, G Krishnan.
The CIC, Shailesh Gandhi, had refused to accept the ruse offered by the MoEF. Gandhi, in his eight-page order, had remarked, “Mere apprehension of proposals being put forth by citizens and civil society who are furthering the cause of environment protection cannot be said to prejudicially affect the scientific and economic interests of the country.
Disclosing a report or information does not mean that the government has to follow it. It may perhaps have to explain the reasons to public for disagreeing with a report based on logic and coherent reasons. This cannot be considered as prejudicially affecting the scientific and economic interests of the State.”
Rumours flew thick and fast in conservationist circles in the seven months since the panel, headed by eminent ecologist Prof Madhav Gandil, submitted its two-volume report on August 31, 2011. There were valid reasons for the apprehensions. Most believed that since the panel had explicitly warned against throwing the Western Ghats open to developmental and industrial activities, the six states affected by the report were pleading with the Centre to dilute the recommendations.
And now the suspicions seem confirmed.
The government had been caught in a piquant situation for a while now. While it is true that it would not have been binding on the ministry to accept the recommendations of the WGEEP, discarding the report outright would have been an embarrassment for the ministry since the mandate for the panel had been one to find the ways for preserving the ecology of the Western Ghats, a treasure trove of minerals and a hydel powerhouse.
It is not that the 14-member WGEEP wanted to bring all developmental activity to a grinding halt. The report’s bottomline, in fact, had been clear: develop thoughtfully, conserve thoughtfully.
The MoEF, described by many critics as an “environmental clearing house” since Jayanthi Natrajan took over the ministry from Jairam Ramesh last year, probably doesn’t believe in the latter.
