India is planning a radical overhaul of its environmental regulation to improve long neglected standards of compliance as it scrambles to protect fast-degrading natural resources, writes James Lamon in FT.com

According to Jairam Ramesh, environment minister, the Congress party-led government plans to set up an Environmental Protection Agency, modelled on that of the US, which would ensure that standards were implemented and monitored.

It has also sought parliamentary approval for the creation of other new environmental institutions including “green courts” aimed at resolving cases long stuck in the existing, overburdened judicial system.

The new push comes as India finds itself in the spotlight in the run up to December’s Copenhagen conference on climate change, where world leaders are hoping to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto agreement. India, China, and other developing countries are under pressure to come up with firmer plans to reduce emissions.

It also comes after Mr Ramesh raised concerns last month about India’s commitment to tackle the effects of climate change when he rejected key scientific findings on global warming.

Mr Ramesh said India urgently needed to boost the transparency of the state’s environmental protection duties. He described his own ministry as being widely regarded in the past as an “ATM ministry” – a source of free-flowing and largely meaningless funds.

The new tribunals, which have received cabinet approval, would have the authority to address all issues concerning forestry and the environment. They would have civil powers allowing them to impose fines and short jail sentences.

“We should have done this 25 years ago,” said Mr Ramesh of measures to improve an overstretched legal system struggling to cope with the demands of one of the world’s fastest growing large economies and its rapid urbanisation.

Leading business people, including Tarun Das, mentor of the Confederation of Indian Industry, have applauded Mr Ramesh as India’s first serious-minded environment minister.

Previously, environmental clearance of business projects was largely viewed as “rubber stamping”. Protection was a low priority; few projects were ever rejected on environmental grounds.

Since taking a cabinet post in the new government two months ago, Mr Ramesh has brought great vigour to the environment portfolio – openly defying the US over proposed carbon-emissions cuts and proposing that gas-guzzling SUVs should be banned in India. The proposals before parliament come as a state-commissioned report released this week showed that almost half of India’s land was degraded, air pollution was a deepening threat to public health and water resources were shrinking.

The State of the Environment Report 2009 also underlined how vulnerable India was to climate change, pointing out that 700m people were directly dependent for their livelihoods on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture and forestry.