Awareness programme on environmental laws and the National Green Tribunal
Centre for Environment Law (CEL) and Species & Landscapes program, WWF India propose to organise series of training programmes across India for Civil Society Organisations, Lawyers and individuals, to prepare them to work actively on environment and conservation issues.
The first training programme was held in Coimbatore on 3 - 4 May 2014 for South India based CSOs, Lawyers and individuals associated with the environmental cause on issues ranging from unplanned infrastructure development, illegal mining, forest and environmental clearance, and conservation issues around Western Ghats.
Fifty three participants working with various South based CSOs, Lawyers practising in Southern High Courts, Forest Officials from Kerala and Individuals working on environmental issues attended the training programme held in Coimbatore. The programme was divided into four technical sessions covering range of local environmental issues which pose a direct threat to local environment including man-animal conflict, biodiversity concerns (mainly pollution issues), an overview of the Environmental Protection Act, Environmental decision making process – mainly dealing with Environmental Impact Assessment, Forest Clearance and Environmental Clearance, and the final session on The National Green Tribunal – the relevant portions of the Act were interpreted for the training participants and all the important cases adjudicated in NGT were explained in detail.
The resource persons for the training were Mr Sundararaju, retired Chief Wildlife Warden, Tamil Nadu, Mr. Santhanaraman, Advocate practicing in Chennai High and NGT Chennai Bench, Mr. Ritwick Dutta, Environmental Lawyer, Supreme Court and NGT, and founder member of LIFE and Mr. Neeraj Vagholikar, Environmentalist and member, Kalpvriksh.
The participants got an opportunity to raise many environmental and conservation issues mainly which needed legal and policy interventions and solutions. Each of these problems were provided with solutions by resource persons and a group has been established to get further updates on conservation issues.
The participants went back with a strong message to integrate energies of organisations and individuals to arrive at strong solutions and to strategise their work with the knowledge they acquired on environmental decision-making processes.
The first training programme was held in Coimbatore on 3 - 4 May 2014 for South India based CSOs, Lawyers and individuals associated with the environmental cause on issues ranging from unplanned infrastructure development, illegal mining, forest and environmental clearance, and conservation issues around Western Ghats.
Fifty three participants working with various South based CSOs, Lawyers practising in Southern High Courts, Forest Officials from Kerala and Individuals working on environmental issues attended the training programme held in Coimbatore. The programme was divided into four technical sessions covering range of local environmental issues which pose a direct threat to local environment including man-animal conflict, biodiversity concerns (mainly pollution issues), an overview of the Environmental Protection Act, Environmental decision making process – mainly dealing with Environmental Impact Assessment, Forest Clearance and Environmental Clearance, and the final session on The National Green Tribunal – the relevant portions of the Act were interpreted for the training participants and all the important cases adjudicated in NGT were explained in detail.
The resource persons for the training were Mr Sundararaju, retired Chief Wildlife Warden, Tamil Nadu, Mr. Santhanaraman, Advocate practicing in Chennai High and NGT Chennai Bench, Mr. Ritwick Dutta, Environmental Lawyer, Supreme Court and NGT, and founder member of LIFE and Mr. Neeraj Vagholikar, Environmentalist and member, Kalpvriksh.
The participants got an opportunity to raise many environmental and conservation issues mainly which needed legal and policy interventions and solutions. Each of these problems were provided with solutions by resource persons and a group has been established to get further updates on conservation issues.
The participants went back with a strong message to integrate energies of organisations and individuals to arrive at strong solutions and to strategise their work with the knowledge they acquired on environmental decision-making processes.
