Indian Antarctic bill seeks to protect the Antarctic environment and regulate activities in the region, including governance of the stations
Twenty-nine Bills are to be tabled in the current Monsoon session of Parliament, according to the Lok Sabha secretariat. Some of them, if enacted, may have crucial impacts on key areas.
Twenty-four of the Bills are new while the Union government will also try to clear some pending bills including, Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 and Inter-State River Water Disputes (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and Indian Antarctic Bill, 2022.
The Monsoon session, started July 18, 2022 is expected to continue through August 13.
The Indian Antarctica Bill, 2022, introduced in Lok Sabha April 1, 2022, seeks to give effect to the Antarctic Treaty, the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources and the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty.
India’s scientific expedition to Antarctica began in 1981. The country has two stations—Maitri and Bharati.
The bill seeks to protect the Antarctic environment and regulate activities in the region, including the governance of the stations.
It prohibits certain activities in Antarctica, including nuclear explosions and disposal of radioactive wastes.
It also restricts the introduction of non-sterile soil and the discharge of garbage, plastic, or other substances into the sea.
The Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021, introduced in Lok Sabha by Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav December 17, 2021, was criticised by experts. They termed the bill ‘contrary’ to Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Wildlife Protection Amendment Bill 2021, if passed, would allow commercial trade in live elephants, noted Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE).
Earlier April 21, the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment, forests and climate change had submitted a report on the bill to Lok Sabha.
The standing committee, chaired by Congress’ Jairam Ramesh, contempted the bill for not accommodating the concerns raised by the members of the Committee on the issue of human-animal conflict.
The Committee had also sought clarification onthe constitution of another Statutory Committee when the law already empowers State Board for Wild Life.
The Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill, 2021, Trafficking of Persons (Protection, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2022, Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2022, The Energy Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2022 and Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2022 are among 24 new bills to be introduced this session.
The passing of the Warehousing (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2022, is likely to strengthen the scientific warehousing ecosystems in the country.
Indian farmers incur a post-harves loss of Rs 92,651 crore every year, owing to poor storage and transportation facilities, cited an earlier report by Down To Earth.
Trafficking of Persons (Protection, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2022 has also been listed for introduction.
India’s progress in addressing human trafficking under Sustainable Development Goal 16 is far from satisfactory, according to the State of India’s Environment report 2022.
The new bill Trafficking of Persons (Protection, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2022, seeks to prevent and combat the trafficking of persons (especially women and children).
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