No environment dept survey in three decades

Samaan Lateef

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 20

At a time when glaciers and water bodies are shrinking in Jammu and Kashmir due to a high level of pollution, it has come to light that the Environment Ecology and Remote Sensing (EERS) Department has never conducted any study to understand the adverse impact of infrastructural projects on environment.

The EERS Department has not conducted any environment impact assessment study of power projects, firing ranges and constructions raised in tourist resorts, officials said. Even the shrinking lakes and rivers have never raised the interest of the department, they said.Scientists and officials concerned of the EERS Department replied in negative to the queries that whether any environment impact assessment study had been conducted by the department.

The EERS Department came into existence in 1987, under the Department of Science and Technology. “It was created with an objective to protect and manage environment for sustainable development of Jammu and Kashmir,” reads the home page of the department’s official website.

“Degradation of the environment caused by polluted atmosphere has tremendous impact on our day-to-day life and amounts to violation of right to life,” it reads. Officials said the environment wing of the department needs to be strengthened. “It is a toothless tiger. We have mandate to conduct studies but it needs human resources,” they said.

However, EERS Department Director Om Prakash Sharma said the activities of the department were confined to environment education, awareness programmes and development of environmental parks.

“We don’t have experts to carry out environment impact assessment studies. I have forest officials in my department and they can’t conduct the studies,” Sharma said. He said the department had the mandate to give clearance to environment studies conducted by various agencies in the state.