At what cost to the environment
On the delay in taking up the Biodiversity Bill in Parliament:
India will be the first country in the world to legislate on sovereign rights over its biodiversity. It is going to be a very comprehensive bill. For that, we need to seek the views of experts and stakeholders in biodiversity. Therefore, it will take time before the bill is placed in Parliament. In fact, I have put a time frame of two weeks (from June 12, 1998) for feedback on the bill from the various sections of society, so that I can present the bill in the monsoon session of Parliament.
On who the stakeholders are:
The stakeholders will be the local communities who understand the biodiversity in their area very closely. Interests of the communities and their traditional knowledge of nature will be protected at all cost.
On development versus environment and his preference for putting development before environment:
This accusation arises from a misunderstanding of my views. My point is that nature can't be recreated after being destroyed. So development should always be sustainable. Since development is inevitable, so is its impact on the environment. It's up to us to decide how much development we need and at what environmental cost.
On the appointment of bureaucrats as heads of different committees of the MEF (though he had declared that "environmentalists of repute' would be appointed):
These committees are administrative by nature and one cannot discount the knowledge of the bureaucrats. What matters is the output of these committees. I assure you that if there are complaints against the output of any committee, I will take action. Besides, environmentalists have always been consulted.
On giving wastelands to paper mills for plantations:
I am aware of the controversy that this issue has created. But I don't know why there should be any controversy.
According to our forest policy , we need 33 per cent of forest cover. Attaining it is a tough job. We have two ways
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