Environmental Governance: Compliances and Consequences

The side effect of relentless industrialization has come up in the form of environmental degradation. Environment related issues have been steadily going up especially in the developing countries like India where the awareness about environmental sustainability and environmental governance is at its lowest. Thus, the state of environment is in a very pitiable condition. Though there are numerous environment related enactments which have endorsed the concept of sustainability and environmental protection, the preservation of the environment is in the state of a big question mark. Though the legal implications for non-compliance under the enactments namely, Wild Life (Protection) Act 1972, Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974 (Water Act), Forest (Conservation) Act 1980, Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1981 (Air Act), Environment (Protection) Act 1986, Public Liability Insurance Act 1991, Biological Diversity Act 2002, National Green Tribunal Act 2010 (Jawaid et al. 2018) etc., are stringent still the environment related issues are increasing manifold. This paper analyses the legal implication for non-compliance under 8 specific environment related enactments and suggest measures in the form of environmental tax to be imposed on the pollutant industries to deter the environmental degradation.