ONE DAY NATIONAL SEMINAR ON GREEN GOVERNANCE IN INDIA: PROGRESS TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Green governance can be defined broadly as the structures and processes that make policies related to environment and oversee the implementation of such policies, apart from acting as advisor on environmental issues to the government. The magnitude of the environmental issues required specialized groups within the government machinery with sound knowledge over environment and issues surrounding it. It is in this backdrop that the concept of green governance came into being. The primary aim of the environmental governance is to bring in transparency, accountability and efficiency on issues related to environment. The Indian parliament enacted a series of pro-environmental legislations. The Ministry of Environment and Forests that was established in 1985, in its initial years promoted alternative energy sources in rural India without hampering the eco- balance. The Indian judiciary also became environmentally pro-active and pronounced environment-friendly judgments. For instance, the judiciary brought in the issue of pollution in a big way thereby addressing environmental concerns and rights of the people. The judiciary for the first time brought in the idea of right to life with dignity, thus going beyond the right to life. As a consequence, environmental issues like pollution came under much wider criticism. Proper green governance would ensure equity and justice that form the basis of modern understanding of human rights. Such human rights based environmental governance would help in sustaining resources for the future. Therefore, it is essential to create reliable and accountable environmental governance structures that would help in protecting and ensuring basic rights like life, health, livelihood, apart from protecting the rights of future generations.

OBJECTIVES OF THE SEMINAR

The seminar intends to discuss the following:

1 Legislation for environmental governance.

2   Constitutional safeguards regarding environmental issues.

3 judicial verdicts regarding green governance (Judicial Activism)

4 scope of Public Interest litigations on green governance

5 Green politics in green governance

6 Environmental issues and their solutions for a sustainable future

The seminar intends to create awareness on various environmental issues to the general public, students and teaching community. It will be helpful in creating awareness on reliable and accountable environmental governance structures that help to protect and ensure basic rights like life, health, livelihood, apart from protecting the rights of future generation

rajagopalashtamudy@gmail.com