No extra money in India’s budget for environment

Even as India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley raised concerns over rising air pollution in his Budget speech, not a single extra paisa was granted to the union environment ministry for this fiscal, while the funds for pollution abatement were slashed.

India’s environment ministry is proposed to be allocated Rs 26.7542 billion in the 2018-19 union Budget, the same as last year.

For year 2018-19, the government, however, seems more focused on tree-plantation drive, the sector that saw the biggest shoot in terms of funds allocation for a single programme.

Fund for Pollution Abatement under ‘Environment Protection, Management and Sustainable Development’ was reduced to Rs 200 million this fiscal against Rs 212 million for 2017-18, which was further cut down to Rs 75 million under revised estimation in 2017-18.

The priorities too seem to have shifted in several key areas as the government's tree plantation drive under "National Mission for Green India" recorded maximum hike with Rs 1.59 billion allocated for afforestation in 2018-19, an increase of Rs 520 million over last fiscal.

The central government also seems focused on conservation of the Tiger, Elephant and tackling Wildlife Crimes with more funds proposed. However it appeared on the backfoot with regard to biodiversity conservation where the funds were halved to Rs 145 million this financial year against Rs 302.1 million in 2017-18.

For Project Tiger, the Centre has proposed Rs 3.50 billion against Rs 3.45 billion last year, and for Project Elephant the amount proposed is Rs 300 million against Rs 275 million in 2017-18.

Development of Wildlife Habitat is also set to receive more with Rs 1.65 billion proposed for this year, against Rs 1.50 billion in last fiscal.

Awareness drive, as hinted by India’s union environment minister earlier, also became the government's priority with Rs 70 million diverted towards environment education, awareness and training. Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) was also granted extra funds with Rs 1 billion proposed for current fiscal against Rs 743 million.

Surprisingly, no funds were allocated to Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) that received Rs 54 million last fiscal.

Indian government also cut down the entire budget for the National Coastal Zone Management Programme from Rs 4.42 billion in 2017-18 (revised estimate Rs 1.52 billion), with no allocation made.

Funds for Conservation of Coral and Mangroves were also a big zero this year against Rs 180 million in last fiscal, even with several reports pointing to degradation of coastal biodiversity.

In 2017-18, the ministry got a hike of over Rs 3 billion than the budget 2016-17.Even as India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley raised concerns over rising air pollution in his Budget speech, not a single extra paisa was granted to the union environment ministry for this fiscal, while the funds for pollution abatement were slashed