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Bengaluru: The ‘ease of doing business’ mantra is overtaking all environmental laws and regulations and we are increasingly viewing environment protection as a regulatory burden, said Jairam Ramesh, senior Congress leader and former environment minister.

Ramesh was speaking at The Hindu’s Huddle, a two-day ideas conclave at Bengaluru, Karnataka, on June 5, in conversation with Gargi Rawat (journalist at NDTV) and Krithi Karanth, CEO and Chief Conservation Scientist of the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bengaluru.

‘Difficult choices need to be made’

At the discussion, which delved into the development and environment debate, Ramesh said that both need to go hand in hand – but that it involves making difficult choices. There are certain situations where sometimes you have to give the go-ahead to development because jobs, investments, urbanisation is involved, he said.

“However, there are instances where we will have to say no, we will protect the environment at all costs,” he said. 

What is really evident now (when compared to 40 years ago) is that the environment has a public health impact, he said. You can see the impacts of air and water pollution, deforestation, in health and livelihoods. That’s why we need to search actively for a balance, he........

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