B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 10 Environmental Law 2012 Jan Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: what environmental ethics is (anthropocentric and ecocentric views); the layers of the ancient sources and how they differ (the four Vedas, the Upanishads, the epics and Puranas, the Dharmashastra, Buddhist and Jain thought, Kautilya and Ashoka, community traditions); the four Vedic themes (the five elements, the earth as mother in the Prithvi Sukta, the unity of living things, water, plants and health); ahimsa; the move from ethic to rule (Manu, Kautilya, Ashoka); the living traditions (sacred groves, the Bishnoi); why the subject belongs in a law course; how modern law uses it (Article 51A(g); Nagaraja, Chinnappa); what it does not establish; and a conclusion.

What environmental ethics means

Environmental ethics asks what moral duties people owe to the natural world. An anthropocentric view values nature only for its use to human beings. An ecocentric view values nature, and every living thing, for itself. Ancient Indian thought leaned strongly towards the second view, many centuries before modern philosophy took it up.

The layers of the sources

2. The earth as mother. The Atharva Veda's long hymn to the earth, the Prithvi Sukta, addresses the earth as mother and the speaker as her child. It asks her forbearance for what is dug from her and promises not to injure her vital parts. The relationship is one of duty, not ownership. The earth is valued not because it is useful but because it is mother.

3. The unity of living things. The Upanishads teach that one reality underlies all beings. If people and other creatures share a common essence, harming nature is not merely wasteful but wrong. That is the root of an ecocentric ethic.

4. Water, plants and health. The Atharva Veda treats water as healing and certain plants as medicine, and links both to health. The practical rule that follows, not to foul water sources, is repeated in the later law books.

2. Kautilya. The Arthashastra created a Superintendent of Forests and protected areas where animals could not be killed (the abhayaranya). It also graded fines by the harm done to trees.
3. Ashoka. The fifth Pillar Edict of the third century B.C. listed animals not to be killed and forbade burning forests without reason. Other edicts record shade trees and wells along the roads.

Living traditions

1. Sacred groves, patches of forest dedicated to a deity, survive in thousands across India. Examples are the devarakadu of Karnataka, the kavu of Kerala and the devrai of Maharashtra. No tree may be cut in them.
2. The Bishnoi of Rajasthan made the protection of trees and animals a religious rule. At Khejarli in 1730, Amrita Devi and many others are said to have died to save khejri trees from being felled.

Why it belongs in a law course

1. It answers the charge that environmentalism is foreign. These ideas are older in India than almost anywhere.

K.M. Chinnappa v. Union of India, (2002) 10 SCC 606. In limiting mining inside the Kudremukh National Park, the Court recalled that Manu prescribed punishments for injuring plants. It said that "Kautilya went a step further and fixed the punishment on the basis of importance of the part of the tree". It also cited Ashoka's decree against killing animals and burning forests.

What it does not establish

1. It was mostly ethics, not law. Apart from the Arthashastra and the law books, none of it was enforced, and it gave no rights against the ruler.
2. Reverence did not prevent damage. Rivers held sacred are among the most polluted in the country.
3. The texts speak with many voices. Composed over centuries, they also contain instruction on clearing forest and on sacrifice. Choosing only the passages that suit a modern argument is a real risk.