Fundamental Duties As A Major Tool For Protecting The Environment

Environmental security is the need to ensure the protection of the environment. Part IV-A of the Indian Constitution has given certain basic obligations or duties to be followed by its citizens in the same context. These obligations are in this way proposed to fill in as a continuous indication to each citizen that while the Constitution explicitly presents them with certain major rights; it additionally expects citizens to watch certain fundamental standards of democratic behavior and fair conduct.

Every citizen has a fundamental or basic duty to protect the environment under Article 51-A(g)of the constitution. As per this article, it shall be the duty of every citizen of India to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers, and wildlife and to have compassion for living creatures.[1] This article was added in the Constitution through the 42nd Constitutional Amendment Act under which the rules of Stockholm Conference,1972 to which India was a signatory state. This amendment also added Article 48-A under Part IV of the constitution which says that the environment, wildlife, and the forests should be protected by the state. The government alone can never make a perfect and sound condition except if with the collaboration of its citizens. The protection of nature and forests is a duty for the state as well as of each person as it expects to accomplish social and monetary equity.

Part III of the constitution of India ensures key rights which are fundamental for the advancement of each person and to which an individual is innately entitled by temperance of being human alone. The environmental right is likewise a privilege without which improvement of individual and acknowledgment of their maximum capacity will not be conceivable. The right to sound and clean environment is a crucial right that comes under the ambit of Right to life, ensured under Article 21 of the Constitution. The right to live in a clean and pure environment was first perceived under Article 21 on the account of Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra v. State of Uttar Pradesh.[2] It is the first instance of this sort in quite a while, including issues identifying with nature and biological parity in which Supreme Court coordinated to stop the illicit mining under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Also in the case of M.C. Mehta v. Union of India[3], the court observed that article 21 also incorporates the right to live in an environment free of pollution within its meaning. The Orissa High court treated Article 51-A(g) and Article 21 as a basis of environmental jurisprudence laying emphasis on the duty of the state as well as citizens to protect the environment.

The Indian constitution further provides Directive principles that aim at a welfare state. A clean environment is additionally one of the components of a welfare state. Article 47 gives that the State will respect the raising of the standard of nutrition and the way of life of its citizens and the improvement of general wellbeing as among its essential obligations. The improvement of general wellbeing additionally incorporates the security and improvement of nature without which general wellbeing can't be guaranteed. Article 48 guides the State to find a way to sort out agribusiness and animal husbandry on the present conditions and logical lines. Specifically, it should make strides for saving and improving the breeds and precluding the butcher of dairy animals.

The Supreme Court in the case of M.C Mehta v. Kamal Nath[4] has observed that Article 51-A(g) and 48-A must be considered in the light of Article 21 of the Constitution which gives no individual will be denied of his life and individual freedom except by law. Any aggravation of any of the components of nature in particular air, water, and soil, which are fundamental, would be perilous forever under the ambit of Article 21.

The protection of nature is a piece of our social values and customs. Earth is our heaven and it is our obligation to ensure our heaven. The constitution of India lays down provisions for safeguarding nature. Therefore, the citizens should be aware of such provisions as it is the present need to bring more prominent open cooperation, natural instruction and sharpen the individuals to save biology and the environment.

[The author, Divya Vishal is a law student at National University of Study and Research In Law, Ranchi]

1. Article 51-A (g) of the Indian constitution
2. Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra v. State of Uttar Pradesh, AIR 1988 SC 2187
3. M.C. Mehta v. Union of India, AIR 1987 965
4. M.C. Mehta v. Kamal Nath, (1997)1 SCC 388