Govt. pushes through amendments to BDA & FCA, weakening regulatory powers & disregarding JPC recommendations. Implications immense & worrying: biopiracy, bio-loot, reckless bio-extraction, FCA removes protection for "deemed forests", opens up forests for extraction, EIA Notification 2006 weakened public involvement in environmental decision-making. Govt. committed to allowing US EPA to direct India's environmental jurisprudence. Real reforms needed in building transparency & accountability, revamping & building capacities of environmental regulators, public involvement in environmental decision-making. Govt. failed despite criminal law enforcement. Outcome frightening to imagine if regulatory powers removed.

The Biological Diversity (Amendment) Bill amendments were pushed through rejecting all but one of the 21 recommendations proposed by the Joint Parliamentary Committee that reviewed the Bill. And in the case of the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, another JPC constituted in March this year, unsurprisingly filled with BJP MPs, just sent it on without recommending any changes. The implications of these amendments on the country’s socioeconomic and ecological securities are immense and deeply worrying.