Assistant Professor, Arya College, Ludhiana, India
Online published on 11 July, 2017.
Environment is very important part of human life and a healthy environment is must for human existence. In India, pollution and environmental degradation has reached alarming heights due to poverty, deforestation, industrial development without adequate environmental safeguards and sheer greed. Since independence the Indian ecosystem has received some major setbacks as a result of haphazard industrial and urban development. The word environment is most commonly used to describe natural environment and means the sum of all living and non-living things that surround an organism or group of organisms. The environment includes all elements, factors and conditions that have some impact on the growth and survival of the people. Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the natural environment on individual, organizational or government levels for the benefit of both the natural resources and human beings. It is the policies and procedures aimed at conserving the natural resources, preserving the current state of natural environment and where ever possible reversing its degradation. Due to the pressure of population and technology, the bio-physical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently. This paper attempts to introduce the concepts and evolution of environmental protection laws in India. It also examines the various environmental issues being faced by the economy and legislations made for protection of environment and role of Indian Judiciary in environmental protection.
