Tight rope walking by Jairam Ramesh
(Cartoon by Carmen Miranda)

Whether India still has an environment worth celebrating on 5th June is debatable.

But thanks to Jairam Ramesh, there probably is still enough environment left worth fighting to preserve. Admittedly the ecological balance is dwindling fast despite his efforts, and no one knows for how much longer it will be possible to legitimately celebrate the environment day. Many people jump into the "environment" bandwagon on 5th of June, but just a few really care about what happens to it during the rest of the year.

The battle to preserve India's environment is fought every single day by millions of people who don't know the significance of 5th June. Their lives are lived in the front line - farmers, tribal people, villagers, the poor in rural and urban areas, all mostly disenfranchised, and voiceless. The voiceless are now backed by an army of well informed, articulate and vigilant NGOs, who believe democracy can become reality, by making the voice of the voiceless heard loud and clear by a stone deaf government….except for someone who for a change is now listening. That someone is Jairam Ramesh, whose open-door policy is a refreshing and welcome change to governance in India. He uses reasoning, debate, listening skills and the rule of law as weapons in his battles for the environment instead of bribes.

Having dusted the cobwebs from the Environment Protection and and Forest Conservation Acts, as well as every relevant rule, regulation and established standards in the Nation, which incidentally, were pretty much ignored by previous administrations, he makes his decisions brandishing the "protection Acts, rules and regulations" to justify himself, and I suppose in the hope of ensuring some compliance - a trick that was missed by successive predecessors in past decades, as they were more interested in reducing Paryavaran Bhavan to a cash and carry ministry, according to some commentators.

When newly appointed to the post of Minister of Environment and Forests, Ramesh in a symbolic gesture of transparency, changed the door to his office from a solid opaque wood into a transparent glass door and proceeded to modernise the ministry's website keeping it up to date with information on every move, decision and plan of his ministry.

Constantly on his mobile phone, typing incessantly messages in his BlackBerry smart phone, keeping his personal assistants, activists and NGOs in their toes, Jairam Ramesh is technically savvy and well informed, and no doubt has brought a good measure of efficiency and speed, where chaos, somnolence and maladministration reigned before. For how long he will succeed in maintaining a degree of integrity within a culture where the only lubricant of the wheels of government and judiciary are bribes, remains to be seen.

As the Nation is hell bent on economic growth at all costs, the environment is under permanent attack. In such a set up, trying to protect the environment may seem like a lost cause, but not so when a Minister takes his job seriously and means business. Holding probably one of the most difficult jobs in the cabinet, he has to reconcile what might seem like two diametrically opposed interests - ecological balance and economic growth, and that too at a time of the biggest global economic crisis, and the biggest global environmental crisis in living memory.

Considering the needs and demands for social and environmental justice from millions who depend on nature's resources for survival, and bringing a semblance of democracy into the wheels of governance while cabinet colleagues clamour for economic growth at all costs, is bound to land Jairam Ramesh in a tight spot. The strategy he chose to get out of it is to tread a middle path, performing an extremely difficult balancing act. But he makes it plain and clear to friends and foes, that his policies and decisions are balanced, and divided into three clear zones of action: No, Yes , and Yes but.

The fact that the laws of the nation and various protection acts are in a dire need of a thorough review, the implementation and monitoring capacity are desperately weak and a lot of his decisions are to be executed by State governments, dilutes the impact of his work on the ground. But that does not seem to stop him on his tracks.

Clearances based on environmental impact assessments which are more often than not lacking in honesty, seriousness and scientific substance, and broadly considered an eye wash are now under attack, and quickly and hotly contested by watchdog NGOs. This issue is among one of the biggest bone of contentions between the MoEF and activists. No doubt another area in urgent need of a review. But when?

Reviews and closing loopholes in legislation need time, and time is a luxury Jairam Ramesh does not have. A lonely crusader for the environmental cause within the government, he claims that he has "zero friends" in the government and is fighting a lonely battle. He is kind of trying to make hay while the sun shines, which means trying for maximum impact and environmental protection while in power with existing tools.

His performance so far has been exceptional, and includes several courageous decisions including resounding NOs to proposals from industries and ministries when no one in the past dared to cross their path. This won him many supporters among members of civil society who are in different ways fighting to protect the environment.

Although Ramesh wants to make environment matter, his colleagues have not yet grasped that all progress towards economic growth can be instantly whipped out by ecological imbalance and climate change. And although he claims that ecological security in a framework that promotes economic growth is what the country is looking for, it is obvious that the government is just looking for rapid economic growth.

Having revolutionised operations in his ministry, and having set up new standards for administration with a good measure of efficiency, Jairam Ramesh from many points of view, will be a tough act to follow.