Green-Tech Foundation slams govt for waiting on complaints
SHILLONG, July 9: Cases of respiratory diseases in Byrnihat have surged by nearly 77 per cent in just two years due to severe industrial pollution, rising sharply from 2,082 in 2022 to 3,681 in 2024, the Green-Tech Foundation has warned.
The Foundation’s concerns come at a time when the ethanol plant pollution controversy in Byrnihat is yet to subside.
The group, which has been actively raising environmental and public health issues along the Meghalaya-Assam industrial border, also cited a study by IQAir in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) that recorded an annual average PM2.5 concentration of 128.2 micrograms per cubic metre in Byrnihat — levels that pose a grave and ongoing threat to communities living in the area.
The Foundation stressed that prolonged exposure to such hazardous pollution endangers not only public health but also the fundamental right to a clean environment. It firmly rejected the notion that regulators can sit idle until ordinary citizens — many lacking resources, technical knowledge or the capacity to file formal complaints — come forward with grievances.
Environmental protection, the group argued, is a proactive legal duty. Regulators are obligated to monitor pollution, investigate credible scientific evidence and take preventive and corrective action wherever data shows environmental degradation or risks to public health. Making action conditional on citizen complaints, it said, violates the preventive spirit of environmental law.
The Foundation further warned that compliance certificates issued to individual industrial units cannot be treated as proof of safety in a region where multiple industries operate in close proximity within the same airshed.
Effective regulation, it insisted, demands assessment of cumulative emissions, ambient air quality, continuous monitoring data and any clear links to rising public health problems — not narrow, isolated inspections.
Calling on both the Meghalaya and Assam governments, pollution control boards and other agencies, the Foundation demanded stronger continuous emissions monitoring, full public disclosure of compliance data, improved interstate coordination and strict enforcement of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
Invoking Article 21 of the Constitution, the Foundation said environmental governance must be guided by the Precautionary Principle, the Polluter Pays Principle and Sustainable Development. It urged authorities to identify pollution sources, enforce standards, act against violators and implement long-term measures to restore ecological balance in Byrnihat.
