Abstract :
Over the years, the world has experienced several laws being passed to protect the environment. Each law passed comes with its own set of rules for safeguarding the environment against its misuse. However, despite having various Environmental laws, the Indian judiciary has applied the principles of torts in a variety of cases involving environmental damages and violating people’s right to a vigorous environment. The aim of this research paper, therefore, is to analyse the need for the application of torts’ principles such as Nuisance, Trespass, Strict Liability, Absolute Liability, and Negligence in India and its effectiveness in matters related to environmental harms and present landmark cases concerning the same. The paper also tries to draw a comparison between the effectiveness of the judgments given while relying exclusively on environmental laws with judgments given on the basis of tort law principles. Furthermore, the paper also presents recent cases on violation of environmental components in India and leaves it to the readers to decide if the present legislation regarding the protection of the environment is sufficient to provide complete justice to the victims of such accidents. In the end, the author also presents her own views regarding the prevailing laws of environmental protection and suggests some changes concerning the same.
Keywords: Environment, Nuisance, Strict liability, Negligence, Trespass
Introduction:
The environment can be defined as “the wellspring of life on Earth like water, air, soil, etc., and determines the presence, development, and improvement of humanity and all its activities.” Ancient Indian scriptures mention protecting nature as the dharma of every individual in a society. According to Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedures established by law”. After this article came into existence, the court acknowledged many unarticulated liberties that were implied by it, including the right to a clean environment.
However, rapid industrialization and economic advancements have given rise to unhealthy air and water pollution affecting infant mortality and life expectancy rates.
The statutes that exist against environmental pollution are several Environmental laws such as “the water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974”, “The Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981”, and “The Environment Protection Act,1986” . Even though these statutes appear to be sufficient to deal with the cases related to pollution of land, water, air, etc., the reach of these acts is much limited and are merely just precautionary. An example explaining the limitation can be The Environment Protection Act,1986, which gives way to a loophole because the approach to the system of locus standi is dissolved by the requirement of a sixty-day notice which provides a chance to the offender to annihilate all kinds of evidence or wrongdoings on his part. Many times, an individual or his property is harmed by large companies committing the offense of environmental degradation. Therefore, to overcome the barriers in Environmental law, remedies provided under tort law were taken for providing damages under environmental pollution.
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