DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

VISAKHAPATNAM, A.P., INDIA

NAME OF THE PROJECT TOPIC

SUBJECT
HISTORY

NAME OF THE FACULTY

DR.VISWACHANDRANATH MADASU

NAME OF THE STUDENT: ANGELA ELSA JOHN

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to be extremely grateful to my History teacher, Dr.Vishwachandranath

I would also like to thank DSNLU for providing all necessary resources and a suitable
workplace, thus helping me come up with a satisfactory project.

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 CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………
2. THE BEGINNING – BRUTAL EXPLOITATION OF THE NATURAL
RESOURCES………………………………………………………………………….
3. REALIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENT-IMPOSING
STRINGENT ACTS…………………………………………………………………..
4. IMPORTANT AUTHORITIES………………………………………………………
5. INDIAN FORESTRY LAWS…………………………………………………………
6. ACTS FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE INDIAN ENVIRONMENT………….
 WATER POLLUTION
 AIR POLLUTION
 MUNCIPALITY LAWS
 WILDLIFE PROTECTION ACT
 MISCELLANOUS
7. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………….
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………….

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 INTRODUCTION

Environment degradation is one of the biggest problems, the world is facing today. The problem
of environment pollution is as old as the evolution of Homo sapiens on this planet. Man's
ambition for limitless enjoyment and comfort has led him towards the exploitation of nature's
wealth so indiscriminately and so shamelessly as to reduce nature's capacity for self stabilization.
Man's voracious appetite for resources and his desires to conquer nature has put him in collision
course with the environment. The demand for his explosive technological society imposes
intense stress on the state of equilibrium with the environment.

The relationship between human beings and his environment has varied from time to time. It has
also been varying from place to place at a given point of time. This statement is quite legitimate
as far as India and its environment protection policy is concerned. The Environment protection in
India started long before from the time of Ancient India. In the early stages of human history in
India, human beings considered the environment as very dominant and that was why, they
worshipped different aspects like trees, forest, animals, mountains, rivers etc. All of these held a
special place of reverence in Hindu theology.1 The Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, and other
scriptures of the Hindu religion gave a detailed description of Trees, plants and wildlife and their
importance to the people.

The Rig Veda highlighted the potentialities of nature in controlling the climate, increasing
fertility and improvement of human life emphasizing on intimate kinship with nature.

Atharva Veda considered trees as abode of various gods and goddesses.

Yajur Veda Emphasized that the relationship with nature and the animals should not be that of
dominion and subjugation but of mutual respect and kindness. Many animals and plants were
associated with Gods and Goddesses so that they were preserved for the future generations. As
they were associated with supernatural powers, no one dared to misuse the resources and
therefore there was a check on the excess utilization of resources.

1
Bharat Bhdholai, Environment Protection Laws in the British Era, Hidayatulla National Law University,
Raipur,2010.

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King Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire did as much as he could to protect environment. He made
several laws for the preservation of the ecology of India. Same trend continued even at the time
of medieval India when Mughals ruled India though not at the same pace which was expected
from them. However, the strongest steps for the same came only from British. They contributed a
lot for the conservation of the ecological system of India by enacting several laws, which really
were missing in the ancient era. But at the same time, the British were equally cunning, using
India’s rich resources to satisfy their own selfish needs. The colonial era was a watershed in
India's environmental history in a host of ways, but changes that were unleashed from the late
nineteenth century onwards have to be set against a long-term backdrop. States had long assisted
in and facilitated land colonization and clearance of marsh, jungle, and forest. But the scale and
kinds of intervention changed markedly in the colonial period, most sharply with respect to the
creation of state forests, the control of wild animals as game or vermin, and the creation of vast
tracts of canal-irrigated land. The complex and interwoven tensions around these projects played
out in different ways in a vast and diverse subcontinent. 2

THE BEGINNING – BRUTAL EXPLOITATION OF THE NATURAL RESOURCES

British arrived in India at 1600 with the mission of trading goods from India in the form of East
India Company. But, after seeing the immense amount of natural resources and plunders of
opportunity to exploit the resources present here, they changed their game plan and started
applying coercion so as to complete their aim of exploiting natural resources in India. At the time
when British arrived in India, India was divided into several princely states ruled by different
rulers. It was quite an easy task for the British to establish itself gradually and astutely. They
very cleverly implemented the policy of Divide and Rule in India and took benefit of the
diversity as on the basis of different rulers as well as due to multiplicity of religion in the
country. The early days of British rule in India were days of plunder of natural resources. They
started exploiting the rich resources present India by employing the policy of imperialism.

By around 1860, Britain had emerged as the world leader in deforestation, devastation its own
woods and the forests in Ireland, South Africa and northeastern United States to draw timber for

2
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com

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shipbuilding, iron-smelting and farming. Upon occasion, the destruction of forests was used by
the British to symbolize political victory.

Thus, the early nineteenth century, and following its defeat of the Marathas, the East India
Company razed to the ground teak plantation in Ratnagiri nurtured and grown by the legendary
Maratha Admiral Kanhoji Angre. There was a total indifference to the needs of the forest
conservancy. They caused a fierce 130 onslaught on Indian Forests.

The onslaught on the forests was primarily because of the increasing demand for military
purposes, for British Navy, for local construction such as roads and railways, supply of teak and
sandalwood for export trade an extension of agriculture in order to supplement revenue.

The British government started control over forest in the year 1806 when a commission was
appointed to enquire into the availability of teak in Malabar and Travancore by way of
appointment of Conservator of Forest. This moved failed to conserve forest as the appointed
conservator plundered the forest wealth instead of conserving it. Consequently, the post of
conservator of forest was abolished in the year 1823. Their early treatment of the Indian forest
also reinforces the claim that destructive energy of the British race all over the world was rapidly
converting forest into desert.

Until the later decades of nineteenth century, the British Raj carried out a immense onslaught on
the subcontinent's forest. With the Oaks forest vanishing in England, a permanent supply of
durable timber was required for the British Navy because the safety and defense of the British
Empire depended primarily on its navy.

In the period of fierce competition between the colonial powers, Indian teak, the most durable of
shipbuilding, saved British during a war with Napoleon and the later maritime expansion. To tap
the likely sources supply, search parties were sent to teak forests of India's west coast.

Ships were built in the dockyards in the Surat and the Malabar Coast, as well as in England by
importing teak from India. The revenue orientation of colonial land policy also worked towards
the denudation of forests. As their removal added to the class of land assessed for revenue,
forests were considered as an obstruction to agriculture and consequently a bar to the prosperity
of the British Empire.

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The dominant thrust of agrarian policy was to extend cultivation and the watchword of the time
was to destroy the forest with this end in view. This process greatly intensified in the early years
of the building of the railways network after about 1853. While great chunks of forests were
destroyed to meet the demand for railway sleepers, no supervision was exercised over the felling
operation in which a large number of trees was felled and lay rotting on the road.

The sub-Himalayan forests of Garhwal and Kumaon, for example were all felled in even to
desolation and thousands of trees were felled which were never removed, nor was their removal
possible.

As early as 1805, the British government requested the British East India Company, which
already controlled large parts of the coastal regions, to investigate the feasibility of harvesting
Malabar teak in Madras to meet the needs of British shipbuilding during the Napoleonic war.

Although the East India Company was a private trading company commissioned in 1600, in
India it functioned as a state entity, enjoying a monopoly of trade in the areas it ruled. Acting at
the direction of the British parliament, it shared authority in India with government officials.

The company appointed a former police officer, Captain Watson, as India's first conservator of
forests in 1806. Watson's two-pronged plan involved placing a tax on teak in order to
simultaneously slow its harvest by private interests and raise money for the government, and
then purchasing the teak from the private dealers. Together, these measures would guard against
over-exploitation and ensure a steady supply of teak.

On 3 August 1855, Lord Dalhousie, the governor general of India, reversed previous laissez-
faire policy to establish the India Forest Department and annex large areas of sparsely populated
lands in India. These lands were declared protected areas and staffed by foresters, fireguards,
rangers, and administrators. Over the next decades, forestry in India became an international
profession with global specialists ruling an empire of trees and grasslands. The new
environmental policies served in turn to support British imperialism in India.

Unlike the conservative French and English royal forests reserved for hunting by the privileged
elite, or the later American concept of total protection in national parks, the new colonial
environmentalism was intended to generate income for the imperial British state through strict
control of India's natural resources. Lord Dalhousie's new forest policies greatly expanded

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British authority over the land and people of India, a colonial empire that the British had
procured piecemeal over the course of several centuries of mercantile and military exploitation.
Thus, environmentalism and imperialism have a shared past, and the newly protected forests
marked a symbiotic alliance of environmental concern with expansion of state power in India.

After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, however, the navy had less need of teak, and a new
governor of Madras, Thomas Munro, felt that the timber royalty unnecessarily raised the
opposition of Indian princes who objected to the tax placed on forests under their authority.
Munro also felt pressure from Indian merchants who objected strenuously to a tax that cut
severely into their profits and from peasants who saw traditional access to the forest sharply
curtailed. The new governor rescinded the teak regulations, abolished Captain Watson's position,
and allowed the free market to operate as it had before.

Lord Dalhousie's tenure as governor-general from 1848 to 1856 saw the acquisition of territory
and implementation of administrative reforms for which posterity dubbed Dalhousie "the great
Proconsul." Dalhousie's support for conservation was unapologetically imperialist. Upon
reaching the capital at Calcutta for his inauguration in 1848, he proclaimed, "we are Lords
Paramount of India, and our policy is to acquire as direct a dominion over the territories in
possession of the native princes, as we already hold over the other half of India." The British
government in India made it clear that "all the forests are the property of Government, and no
general permission to cut timber therein will be granted to anyone.”

REALIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENT-IMPOSING STRINGENT

The second half of the 19th century marked the beginning of an organized forest management in
India with some administrative steps taken to conserve forest; the formulation of forest policy
and the legislations to implement the policy decision. The systematic management of forest
resources began with the appointment of the First Inspector General of Forest in 1964.

Dietrich Brandis was the first Inspector General of India. Lord Canning appointed Dietrich
Brandis as the first inspector general of the India-wide Indian Forest Department, a post he held
from 1864 to 1883. The immediate task of the forest department was under the supervision of
Inspector General was that of exploration of resources, demarcation of reserves, protection of the

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forest from fire and assessment of the growing stock in valuable reserve by sample enumeration
and prescription of yields which could be sustained.

The objective of management of forest thus changed from obtaining of timber for various
purposes to protecting and improving forests and treating them as a biological growing entity.
Forest conservators had already been appointed in Bombay (1847), Madras (1856), and the
United Burma Provinces (1857); Brandis in turn appointed forest conservators to the
Northwestern Provinces and Central Provinces in 1860, Oudh in 1861, Punjab in 1864, Coorg
and Bengal in 1864, Assam in 1868, and Berar in 1868.

By the end of 1868, the Forest Department had administrators in every province of the
subcontinent. In 1871, the Forest Department was placed under the newly established
Department of Revenue and Agriculture, itself under the umbrella of the Home Department.

The first step of the British Government to assess state monopoly right over the forest was the
enactment the Forest Act, 1865. the act was revised after about thirteen years later in 1878 and
extended to most of the territories under the British rule. It also expanded the powers of the state
by providing for reserved forest, which were closed to the people and by empowering the forest
administration to impose penalties for any transgression of the provision of the Act. Yet the latter
act was passed only after a prolonged and bitter debate within the protagonist of the earlier
debate put forth arguments strikingly similar to those advanced by participants in the
contemporary debate about the environment of India.

Hurriedly drafted, the 1865 act was passed to facilitate the acquisition of those forest areas that
were earmarked for railway supplies. It merely sought to establish the claims of the state to the
forests in immediately required, subject to the proviso that existing rights would not be abridged.
Almost immediately, the search commenced for a more stringent and inclusive piece of
legislation. A preliminary draft, prepared by Brandis in 1969, was circulated among the various
presidencies. A conference of forest officers, convened in 1874, then went into defects of the
1865 act and the details of the new one. The British Government declared its First Forest Policy
by a resolution on the 19th October 1884. The policy statement had the following objectives:

1. Promoting the general well being of the people in the country;

2. Preserving climatic and physical condition in the country; and

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3. Fulfilling the need of the people

The policy also suggested a rough functional classification of forest into the following four
categories:

1. Forests, the preservation of which was essential for climatic and physical grounds;

2. Forests which offered a supply a valuable timber for commercial purposes;

3. Minor forest which produced only the inferior sort of timber; and

4. Pastures, which were forest only in name.

To implement the Forest policy of 1884, the Forest act of 1927 was enacted. Till 1935, the
government of India enacted the Forest Act.

In 1935, the British Parliament through the Government of India created provincial legislature
and the subject of the forest as included in the provincial legislature list. Thereafter, several
provinces made their own laws to regulate forest. Most of these laws were within the framework
laid down in the 1927 Act. The British all along their reign in India formed many other Acts from
time to time.

FORESTRY IN BRITISH INDIA

Stages prior to the development of a forest policy: 1796-1850

It is assumed that the growth of forest policy in India was extraordinarily slow. There were
many mitigating factors at first. Stebbing, the author of the book, 'The Forests of India', is of the
view that "scientific knowledge amongst the European officials was confined almost entirely to
the members of the medical profession," and had this not been the case, "in the early years of
British occupation the botany of the forests, the species of trees they contained and their
respective values was an unopened book". However, in spite of Stebbing's statement it is
interesting to note that whatever attempts were made to establish plantations in Malabar, in
Bengal or in Burma between 1805 and 1822, the medical service was involved and it played an
important role.

Indian Forest Act 1865

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The Indian Forest Act was introduced by the British in 1865 and was a first attempt at forest
legislation. The aim was to create forest reservations to meet national and regional long term
needs for resources such as water supply, soil conservation etc. However, the merits of a
particular block of forest chosen for reservation were determined by a revenue officer and not by
a forest officer. The interests of the agriculturists, presumably were amply safeguarded during
the creation of the reserve forests. In the hill region 50 per cent of the forest area was generally
excluded from reservation and in the plains the non-reserved area set aside as village commons
were about three times as large as the reservation. In tribal areas, the needs of the tribes were
identified and provided for within the reserved forest. Shortly after it had been passed, the Act of
1865 was found to be insufficient, and as early as 1868 proposals for its amendments were
submitted to the government. At the Forest Conference held in Allahabad in 1873-74, the defects
of the Act of 1865 were brought prominently to notice. Baden Powell presented in the
Conference, a paper entitled, "Forest Legislation and the Defects of the Existing Law" and
criticized the act of 1865 severely: However, the main deficiencies were those noticed by Hope
in the Viceregal Council which met on 6th March 1878. He observed, "It drew no distinction
between the forests which required to be closely reserved, even at the cost of more or less
interference with private rights, and those which merely needed general control to prevent
improvident working. It also provided no procedure for enquiring into and settling the rights
which it so vaguely saved, and gave no power for regulating the exercise of such without
appropriating them". In 1875 a memorandum was published by O. Brandis, entitled,
'Memorandum on the Forest Legislation' Proposed for British India,' in which the subject was
discussed in all its bearings, and definite suggestions regarding forest legislation for India were
made.

Indian Forest Act of 1878

In the year 1878, the Indian Forest Act VII was passed, extending to all provinces of British
India, except Madras, Burma, the Hazra district in Punjab. Ajmer, Coorg, Berar and Baluchistan.
When the Indian Forest Act of 1878 was first draft, it was intended to create only one class of
demarcated state forests, viz. reserved forests, originally so-called because the areas were
reserved for cultivation; but as their formation would take time, provision was also made for the
protection of the government forest areas generally, until it could be decided what areas should

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be maintained permanently as forests by constituting them demarcated or reserved forest. The
constitution of reserved forests was surrounded by every safeguard against any possible
infringement of private rights and secured a permanent settlement, whereas the second class of
demarcated state forests, known as protected forests offered but an insufficient guarantee for
their stability and protection. Existing rights were recorded in such forests, but not settled. A
separate Act was passed for Burma in 1881, as the Chief Commissioner declined to extend the
Indian Act to his Province. Similarly, the Madras Government declared that the Indian Forest
Act could not be extended to Madras, as the formation of reserves, as contemplated by the Act,
could not be accomplished. The rights of the villagers over the waste lands and jungles were
considered to be of such a nature as to prevent government from forming independent states
property. Madras, therefore, preferred to legislate locally. Brandis was then deputed to Madras in
October 1881 and one of the most important results of this deputation was the passing of the
Madras Forest Act of 1882, which came into effect from 1st January 1883. The Burma and
Madras Acts proceeded on the same general lines as the Indian Act, but they differed on an
important point, that the general Indian Act recognized two different classes of state forests, i.e.,
reserved and protected, while the later enactments recognized only one class. The Burma Act, on
the other hand provided that any land at the disposal of the government could be constituted as a
village forest for the benefit of any village community or group of such communities. This was a
much more expeditious method of procedure, and in this respect also the Burma Act was
superior to the India Act.

The Madras Act contained no provision for the constitution of village' forests in the above sense.
In 1886 the Berar Forest Law was sanctioned according to which all waste lands in Berar were
declared as the indisputable and entire property of the state. The same year a Forest Regulation
was passed for Baluchistan in consonance with the Berar Forest Law. In ]887, the Upper Burma
Forest Regulation was passed. It moved generally on the lines of the Burma Forest Act, entirely
so with regard to the creation of reserves. As regards property rights and user, it was distinctly
laid down that the practice of shifting cultivation conveyed no right and could be abolished at the
pleasure of the government. In 1890 the Upper Burma Forest Regulation was extended to the
Shan states. Next year in 1891, the Assam Forest Regulation was sanctioned and was formulated
entirely on the Upper Burma Regulation. As a sequel of the passing of the Indian Forest Act of
1878, the area under the control of the Forest Department at the end of March 1888 amounted to

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79,710 square miles of reserved and protected forests. By 1889-90 the area of reserved and
protected forests had risen to 86,000 square ,miles.

Indian National Forest Policy, 1894

The next step towards forest management in India was the declaration of the forest policy in
1894, following the report of Dr. Voelcker on the "Improvement of Indian Agriculture",
published in 1893, which stressed the need for formulating the forest policy in conformation with
the agricultural interests of the country. The main objects of the forest policy were: 0) The sole
object to which the management of forests is to be directed is to promote the general welfare of
the country. (ii) The maintenance of adequate forests is dictated primarily for the presentation of
the climate and physical conditions of the country and secondly to fulfill the needs of the people.
With the above two safeguards, it can be stated that, (a) permanent cultivation had priority over
forestry, (b) to meet the demands of the local population free or at nominal rates, meant
overriding of all considerations of revenue, and (c) after fulfilling the above two conditions,
realization of maximum revenue was to be the guiding factor. The salient features of the forest
policy were to classify existing forests into four classes: (a) forests, the preservation of which
was considered essential on climatic or physical grounds, (b) forests which afforded a supply of
valuable timber, (c) minor forests, and (d) pasture lands. The forests of the first two categories
were ordinarily to be settled and declared reserved forests, and those under third and fourth
category, with extensive rights and to be managed mainly in the interests of the local community,
were to be declared as protected forests. New rights could spring up in a protected forest but not
in a reserved forest. Broadly speaking in a reserved forest everything was an offence that was not
permitted while in a protected forest nothing was an offence that was not prohibited. Although it
was not until 1865 that the formal structure of an all India forest department was set up, the
environmental debate in which state forestry originated had already been going on for three
decades before the promulgation of this Act, and these debates were dominated by
conservationists-cum-surgeons. It is obvious that when the Forest Department was constituted in
the 1860s, the state of those forests which were of easy access was extremely poor and chaotic
and the ideas for their management and administration vague. In certain areas the progress of. the
department was also slow. However, the establishment of the Forest Department gradually
brought this wasteful system of exploitation to an end. The drafting of proper forest laws for the

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different provinces was considered between 1869 and 1878. The first question which came up
for settlement was, to what extent the long continued right of user,. to, the free collection of
small produce such as fuel, grass, bamboos, grazing and shifting cultivation in the waste lands,
should be regarded as constituting a prescriptive right; on the other hand, it was acknowledged
that government as the guardian of all public interests must insist on the regulation of these rights
so as to render possible a good management of the reserved forests in the interests of the country.
However, the profit motive prevailed and still prevails. To obtain a sustained revenue from the
forests, Brandis evolved a very simple method based on the concepts of Dauerwold and methode
du controlle. This method required complete enumeration of the forests, and the permissible cut
was related to the actual increment in terms of the number of trees of all size classes. The
silvicultural system was, "Protection-cum-Improvement", an innovation and an unorthodox
departure, but eminently suited to the condition of the crop then prevailing. This definitely
resulted in improvement of the growing stock and was also a guarantee against over felling. In
the early days of forest administration another great difficulty was apathy and disbelief in the
destructiveness of forest fires. When the Forest Department came into existence, the great
majority of the forests in India were in an extremely poor condition, open and interspersed with
grass blanks, large areas frequently containing no tree growth whatever because of the
impossibility of extending fire protection.

When the whole countryside was ablaze, it was only some isolated pockets that could be
protected. Forest protection was thus introduced for the first time in Madras Presidency in 1860.
But the work did not progress and as late as 1882, only 300 square miles of forests, were under
fire protection in Madras. Concomitantly fire protection was also introduced in other parts of
India like the Central Provinces, North Western Provinces and Bombay, and at the end of 1880-
81, about 11,000 square miles of forests were artificially protected from fire in India; by the end
of 1884-85 this area had been increased to 16,000 square miles and in 1900 it was 39,000 square
miles.

ACTS FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE INDIAN ENVIRONMENT

Main Acts in the field of Environment in the British Era Acts

Controlling:

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Water Pollution

The Shore Nuisance (Bombay and Kolaba) Act, 1853

The Orient Gas Company Act, 1857

Indian Penal Code, 1860

The Serais Act, 1867

The North India Canal and Drainage Act, 1873

The Obstruction in Fairways Act, 1881

The Indian Easement Act, 1882

The Indian Fisheries Act, 1897

The Indian Ports Act, 1908

The Indian Steam Vessels Act, 1917

The Poison Act, 1919

The Indian Forest Act, 1927

The Orient Gas Company Act, 1857

The Serais Act, 1857

The Northern India Canal and Drainage Act, 1873

The Obstruction in Airways Act, 1881

The Indian Fisheries Act, 1897

The Indian Ports Act, 1901

The Bengal Smoke Nuisance Act, 1905

The Explosives Act, 1908

The Bombay Smoke Nuisance Act, 1912

The Inland Stream Vessel Act, 1917

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The Mysore Destructive Insects & Pests Act, 1917

The Poison Act, 1919

The Andhra Pradesh Agricultural, Pest & Diseases Act, 1919

The Indian Boilers Act, 1923

The Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923

The Indian Forest Act, 1927

The Motor Vehicles Act, 1939

The Bihar Wastelands (Reclamation, Cultivation & Improvement) Act, 1946.

Air Pollution Acts

Indian Penal Code, 1860

The Indian Boilers Act, 1923

Motor Vehicle Act, 1939 (Repealed by Act No.59 of 1988)

The Poison Act, 1919

Municipality Laws

Uttar Pradesh Municipality Laws, 1916

Bihar and Orissa Municipality Laws, 1922

Both of these laws were amongst the earliest laws for regulating the

environment conditions in the cities by the help of municipality laws.

Wildlife Protection Act

Forest act of Madras 1873

Elephant Preservation Act, 1879

World Birds Protection Act, 1887

World Birds and Animal Protection Act, 1912

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Hailey National Park Act,1936 (Now Called Corbett National Park)

Miscellaneous

# The Indian Fisheries Act, 1897

# The Indian Forest Act, 1927

# Criminal Procedure Code, 1893

The Shore Nuisance (Bombay and Kolaba) Act, 1853

This is the earliest Act on the statue book concerning control of water pollution in India. It was
the first act in the field of Environment protection in India, which was enacted by the British for
the British India. This act was passed so as to regulate the waste materials discharged in the
coastal area of Bombay (Now Mumbai) and Colaba area, from various industries functioning in
these areas.

Oriental Gas Company Act, 1857

This law imposed restrictions on fouling of water by the Oriental Gas Company. The Oriental
Gas Company provided fine of Rs. 1000, for fouling water and for the subsequent continuation
of the offence, Rs. 500 per day. Oriental Gas Company (OGC) Act was among the first act in the
field of water pollution.

Indian Penal Code, 1860

As regards to water pollution, Indian Penal Code says that whoever voluntarily corrupts or fouls
the water of any public spring or reservoir, so as to make it less fit for the purpose for which it is
ordinarily used, shall be punished with simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term exceeding to
three months or fine of five hundred rupees or both. The definition is confined to a voluntary act
and acts committed without any knowledge or accidentally would not be covered under the
present law. Moreover, it has limited operation to the water of public spring or reservoir. Further,
looking to the gravity of the offence it attracts only minor punishment. It is surprising to know
that in spite of the fact that this provision was incorporated to protect the public health, the cast
ridden society wanted to enforce this provision against the lower cast person taking water from a
public cistern but the Bombay High Court did not allow the above interpretation (R V Bhagi 2

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Bom LR 1078). Chapter 14th of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) is for Public Nuisance from section
268 to 291.

The Serais Act, 1867

The Act enjoined upon a keeper of Serai or an inn to keep a certain quality of water fit for
consumption by "persons and use of it by the animals" to the satisfaction of the District
magistrate or his nominees. Failure for maintaining the standard entailed a liability of rupees
twenty. It is to be understood that the amount twenty rupees was a very big amount at that time
and therefore should not be compared to the value of twenty rupees prevailing now in the
country.

The North India Canal and Drainage Act, 1873

Certain offences have been listed under the Act contained in Section 70. It was to regulate the
way canals for the purpose of irrigation as well as to discharge the effluents from various
industries as well as drainage system are to be controlled.

Obstruction in Fairways Act, 1881

Section 8 of the Act empowered the Central Government to make Rules to regulate or prohibit
the throwing of rubbish in any fairway leading to a port causing or likely to give rise to a bank or
shoal.

Indian Easements Act, 1882

It protected riparian owners against unreasonable pollution by upstream officer. Illustrations (f),
(h) and (j) of Section 7 of the Act deal with pollution of waters. Section 28(d) of the Easement
Act, 1882 on the one hand allowed a prescriptive right to pollute the water but it was not an
absolute right. The illustrations (f), (g), and (j) of this Section, limited this prescriptive right not
to unreasonably pollute or cause material injury to other.

The Indian Fisheries Act, 1897

The Indian Fisheries Act, 1897 contains seven sections. This act penalized the killing of fish by
poisoning water and by using explosive. Section 5 of the Act prohibits destruction of fish by
poisoning waters.

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Indian Ports Act, 1908

The Indian Ports Act, 1908, has regulated water pollution caused by the use of oil or discharging
of oil in the port waters.

Bengal Smoke Nuisance Act, 19053

At a time when there is growing concern about protecting the Victoria Memorial Hall from
environmental degradation, 'The Bengal Smoke Nuisance Act, 1905', an Act that was introduced
by the British to protect the monument has completed a century. This Bengal Smoke Nuisance
Act, which was framed in 1905 "for the abatement of nuisances, arising from the smoke of
furnaces or fire-places in the towns and suburbs of Kolkata and in Howrah and other areas
of Bengal", was the first law for protecting nature in India.

The Indian Forest Act, 1927

This act was very comprehensive and contained all the major provisions of the earlier act and
amendments made thereto including those relating to the duty on timber. The Act of 1927 also
embodied land-using policy whereby the British could acquire all forestland, village forest and
other Common Property Resources. Section 26(i) of the Act makes it punishable if any person,
who, in contravention of the rules made by the State Government, poisons water of a forest area.
The State Government has been empowered under Section 32(f) to make rules relating to
poisoning of water in forests. This act is still in force, together with several amendments made by
the State Governments.

Criminal Procedure Code, 1893.

Criminal Procedure Code, 1893 was one of the major acts, which provided some of the very
strict punishments for the environmental offences under the criminal law. Sections 133 to 144 in
the Chapter XII of the Criminal Procedure under the heading Public Nuisance provided for the
punishment under criminal procedure for the commission of any nuisance,
which affected the public at large. The environmental degradation was also included in it as any
degradation of the environment is automatically supposed to be affecting the public at large.

3
http://web.wbpcb.gov.in

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 CONCLUSION

Thus, it can be held hereby that some of the very strong steps were taken by the British in order
to protect environment from degrading and to preserve it for the future generations. But, some of
these laws showed their capability on paper and not on the practical grounds. Many laws and acts
enacted by the British in our country proved out to be more useful for them (British) as
compared to us. They made several laws so as to make their task easy as by that they were able
to make use of the resources and degrade environment comfortably and lawfully.

Some of the laws were so as to protect the resources from the natives itself, so that the British
can utilize them for their own needs which were to gain as much capital from India as possible.
Introduction of Railways in India is thought to be major reward for the Indians by the British and
there is no doubt that it is one of the very valuable gift of the British for India. But, the British
never brought rail to India with the thought of benefiting us but for their own benefit. They
introduced rail in India so that the resources present in India, especially environmental resources
that they were harnessing, can reach easily and quickly to their destination. They made laws for
conserving the forest and in the process marked much of the area as the property of the
government so that no one could object as to he use of these forest by the British. Even if some
laws were present which were beneficial for the environment conservation, then they were not
implemented properly for them.

The punishments prescribed under the laws were not very strict and so the offender was very
easily allowed to escape. Moreover, most of the time, the British themselves depleted the
resources. The theories like Sovereign Immunity always saved the government from being sued
under public offence. The maxims like King can do no wrong were applied to its full extent. But
still to say that the British always thought of their own benefit would be a wrong statement. The
laws like Indian Penal Code 1860, and Criminal Procedure Code 1893, were very effective.
Moreover, the laws made by the British paved a way for the Indian to think and implement new
laws in this field itself. These laws were one of the first lessons for the Indians to make laws for
the protection of the environment in a more polished fashion in the future.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) www. shodhganga.com

2) Modern Indian History by B.D Mahajan

3) http://www.oxfordscholarship.com

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