My first internationally published article! For the @BobBrownFndn of #Australia. How rules were tweaked to help a private company. @moefcc @PrakashJavdekar https://www.adaniwatch.org/how_the_modi_government_tweaked_environmental_laws_to_facilitate_an_adani_backed_project

(1/n) On 30 Sep 20, India’s National Green Tribunal ordered a company part-owned by the Adani Group to remove storage tanks for edible oils from a coastal zone in the country’s south-east. It ordered the removal of the plant because it found that it had been established illegally

(2/n) This story presents evidence of the ‘tweaking’ of environmental rules by the Indian government to enable to development to proceed, despite being incompatible with the area’s zoning and the associated risks to the adjacent marine environment

(3/n) The National Green Tribunal, in ordering the removal of tanks and pipeline, also fined the company the equivalent of AUD $50,000 (Rs 25 lakhs)

(4/n) Allegedly, KTV Health Foods had all along been seeking a prior CRZ clearance for the project even though construction activities had already commenced.

(5/n) The union environment ministry allowed a three-month moratorium for obtaining post facto clearances under the CRZ Notification, 2011. The moratorium window was opened with effect from 23 March 2018, the date on which the amended notification was issued, till 30 June 2018

(6/6) And in March 2019, the firm was granted clearance to construct edible-oil storage terminals along an expressway near Chennai after transporting the oil from the port with the help of pipelines