As per the NCRB report, they have noted a 78 per cent increase in environmental crimes in 2020 compared to 2019.
According to the latest update of the National Crime Record Bureau, India shows an increase of 28 per cent in overall crime in 2020 compared to 2019. And in the category of environmental offences alone, the country offers a rise of 78.1 per cent.
In last year, NCRB reported 61,767 cases relating to environmental crimes in India, which excludes 7154 patients that were pending from 2019.
Apart from the COVID -19 regulations and norms violation cases, environmental offences are the category of crime with the highest increase since 2019.
Categories of crime included in environmental offences
Environmental offences committed across India include violation of:
- The Wildlife Protection Act
- The Forest Act
- The Forest Conservation Act
- The Air & Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act
- The Cigarette and other Tobacco Products Act
- The Noise Pollution Act
- The National Green Tribunal Act
Illegal poaching, deforestation, hunting, smuggling ozone depletion materials, illicit trade of wildlife products such as tusks and skin of animals and birds, illegal fishing, timber trading, polluting public places, harming animals and other species, knowingly encouraging pollution etc., are examples of environmental offences.
Ranking of different states
In India, Tamil Nadu is the state with a large number of environmental offences reported last year. The condition reports 42,756 environmental offence cases.
Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh followed Tamil Nadu with 9543 cases and 2981 cases, respectively. Rajasthan shows a slight decrease in the number of cases than in 2019, while Uttar Pradesh shows a minute increase than 2019.
Kerala comes in the fourth position with 1795 cases under environmental offences and Uttarakhand in the fifth position with 1271 cases.
Mizoram and Sikkim scored well, as Mizoram reported zero environmental cases and Sikkim with only one such case reported last year. This report makes these states exemplary to others.
In the overall environmental offences reported, 80 per cent included in the category of violation of the Cigarette and other Tobacco Products Act. That is, around 49,710 cases under this category were reported by NCRB last year. Breach of Noise Pollution Act scores the second highest with 11 per cent.
Under the Forest Act and the Forest Conservation Act, 2,287 cases were reported in India, in which UP reported the highest number of cases 1, 317, under this law.
In the category of violation of the Wildlife Act, 672 cases were reported in 2020, in which the authorities said 185 cases in UP and 151 cases in Rajasthan.
Under Environmental Protection Act, there were 992 cases reported in the country in which UP recorded the highest number of cases with 841.
Crimes under The Air and Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act raised to 286 per cent in a year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)’s latest report. They reported 589 cases under these two acts in 2020 compared to 160 cases in 2019.
Offences recorded under the category of environmental violations have increased consistently since 2018. Crimes registered under air and water pollution act have risen over 840 per cent in 2019 compared to 2018.
