Environmental laws are laws that protect the environment. Environmental law is the collection of laws, regulations, agreements and common law that governs how humans interact with their environment. This includes environmental regulations; laws governing management of natural resources, such as forests, minerals, or fisheries; and related topics such as environmental impact assessments. Environmental law is seen as the body of laws concerned with the protection of living things from the harm that human activity may immediately or eventually cause to them or their species, either directly or to the media and the habits on which they depend.
Environmental health is the branch of public health concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment affecting human health. In order to effectively control factors that may affect health, the requirements that must be met in order to create a healthy environment must be determined. The major sub-disciplines of environmental health are environmental science, toxicology, environmental epidemiology, and environmental and occupational medicine.
The National Capital Region (NCR) is a planning region centered upon the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi in India. It encompasses Delhi and several districts surrounding it from the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The NCR and the associated National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) were created in 1985 to plan the development of the region and to evolve harmonized policies for the control of land-uses and development of infrastructure in the region. Prominent cities of NCR include Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Noida.
Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is the municipal corporation that governs most of Delhi, India. The MCD is among the largest municipal bodies in the world providing civic services to a population of about 20 million citizens in the capital city Delhi. It is headed by the Mayor of Delhi, who presides over elected councillors from 250 wards. The municipal corporation covers an area of 1,397.3 km². The annual budget of the corporation is above ₹16,000 crore.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment is an executive-department of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, responsible for the ecological and environmental affairs. It is the 15th-ranked department in the State Council.
To protect the environment from the adverse effects of pollution, many nations worldwide have enacted legislation to regulate various types of pollution as well as to mitigate the adverse effects of pollution. At the local level, regulation usually is supervised by environmental agencies or the broader public health system. Different jurisdictions often have different levels regulation and policy choices about pollution. Historically, polluters will lobby governments in less economically developed areas or countries to maintain lax regulation in order to protect industrialisation at the cost of human and environmental health.
The National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 is an Act of the Parliament of India which enables the creation of a special tribunal to handle the expeditious disposal of the cases pertaining to environmental issues. It draws inspiration from India's constitutional provision of Article 21 Protection of life and personal liberty, which assures the citizens of India the right to a healthy environment. This Act serves as a basis for the establishment of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) of India is a statutory organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Mo.E.F.C.C.). It was established in 1974 under the Water Act, 1974. The CPCB is also entrusted with the powers and functions under the Air Act, 1981. It serves as a field formation and also provides technical services to the Ministry of Environment and Forests under the provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. It coordinates the activities of the State Pollution Control Boards by providing technical assistance and guidance and also resolves disputes among them. It is the apex organization in country in the field of pollution control, as a technical wing of MoEFCC. The board is led by its chairperson appointed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet of the Government of India. The current acting chairman is Shri Tanmay Kumar IAS and the Member Secretary is Prashant Gargava.
Water pollution is a major environmental issue in India. The largest source of water pollution in India is untreated sewage. Other sources of pollution include agricultural runoff and unregulated small-scale industry. Most rivers, lakes and surface water in India are polluted due to industries, untreated sewage and solid wastes. Although the average annual precipitation in India is about 4000 billion cubic metres, only about 1122 billion cubic metres of water resources are available for utilization due to lack of infrastructure. Much of this water is unsafe, because pollution degrades water quality. Water pollution severely limits the amount of water available to Indian consumers, its industry and its agriculture.
Air pollution in India is a serious environmental issue. Of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, 21 were in India in 2019. As per a study based on 2016 data, at least 140 million people in India breathe air that is 10 times or more over the WHO safe limit and 13 of the world's 20 cities with the highest annual levels of air pollution are in India. 51% of the pollution is caused by industrial pollution, 27% by vehicles, 17% by crop burning and 5% by other sources. Air pollution contributes to the premature deaths of 2 million Indians every year. Emissions come from vehicles and industry, whereas in rural areas, much of the pollution stems from biomass burning for cooking and keeping warm. In autumn and spring months, large scale crop residue burning in agriculture fields – a cheaper alternative to mechanical tilling – is a major source of smoke, smog and particulate pollution. India has a low per capita emissions of greenhouse gases but the country as a whole is the third largest greenhouse gas producer after China and the United States. A 2013 study on non-smokers has found that Indians have 30% weaker lung function than Europeans.
Jitendra Nath Pande or J. N. Pande was an Indian Pulmonologist and Professor and Head of Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Studies (AIIMS). He was working as Senior Consultant (Medicine) at Sitaram Bhartia Institute of Science & Research, New Delhi. He died on 23 May 2020 during sleep when he was home quarantined due to COVID-19 positivity during the COVID-19 pandemic in India, in New Delhi.
The air quality in Delhi, the capital territory of India, according to a WHO survey of 1,650 world cities, and a survey of 7,000 world cities by the US-based Health Effects Institute in August 2022, is the worst of any major city in the world. It also affects the districts around Delhi. Air pollution in India is estimated to kill about 2 million people every year; it is the fifth largest killer in India. India has the world's highest death rate from chronic respiratory diseases and asthma, according to the WHO. In Delhi, poor quality air irreversibly damages the lungs of 2.2 million or 50 percent of all children.
Police Complaints Authority (PCA) is a body that adjudicates allegations of improper or shoddy investigations, refusal to file FIRs, custodial torture and high-handedness against the police. But its recommendations are high authorities and recognised governmental authority upon the state government for action against errant police personnel. Seventeen States have established the PCAs through State Police Acts, while ten states have done this through executive orders with a long-term goal of the PCAs is changing the policing culture and making it thoroughly professional.
Deepak Verma is an Indian jurist and a former Judge of the Supreme Court of India. His career in the Indian judiciary includes serving as the Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court, acting Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka, and holding the position of a judge in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh. After retiring from the Supreme Court, Justice Verma has become known for his work as an international arbitrator and mediator, and he has acted as an expert on matters of Indian law in several high profile cases before foreign courts and international tribunals including the Enrica Lexie incident and the multi-billion dollar Vijay Mallya case. He has also assumed the role of a sports ombudsman in India. Additionally, he has chaired significant High-Powered Judicial Committees appointed by the High Court and the Supreme Court of India. He also serves as the chairperson and member of the advisory board of several distinguished non-profits, educational institutions and universities in India.
Indian environmental law concerns the law and policy of India concerning the protection of the environment, measures taken to reverse climate change and achieve a zero carbon economy.
The IACC, a non-profit organisation for non invasive cardiologists, was founded in 2008 by Dr. Rajesh Rajan, 4 Padma Shri doctors, Mohammed Shafiq and five other colleagues from Kerala Institute of Medical Sciences. Based in Kerala, this association works towards the prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD) and the reduction of cardiovascular mortality in rural India.
The Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) is the head of the Integrated Defence Staff which acts as the point organisation for jointmanship in the Ministry of Defence. In November 2019, government sources disclosed the post of Chief of Integrated Defence Staff would be converted to that of Vice Chief of Defence Staff some in the future.
The 2020 Assam gas and oil leak, also referred as the Baghjan gas leak, was a blowout and methane leak that happened in Oil India Limited's Baghjan Oilfield in Tinsukia district, Assam, India on 27 May 2020. The blowout occurred at Well No. 5 in the Baghjan Oil Field, resulting in a leak of natural gas. The leaking well subsequently caught fire on 9 June 2020, and resulted in three deaths (Officially), large-scale local evacuations, and environmental damage to the nearby Dibru-Saikhowa National Park and Maguri-Motapung Wetland.
The RapidX is a rapid rail system operated by the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) in India's National Capital Region (NCR). The goal of the RapidX is to replace the conventional non-air-conditioned MEMU-operated local train network with a rapid rail system. The semi-high speed trainsets which are providing services on RapidX have been named as Namo Bharat and have an average speed of 100 km/h (62 mph).
