The Erosion of the Public Trust: A Socio-Legal Analysis of the Conflict between Infrastructure Development and the Forest Rights Act in Post-Pandemic India

Indian environmental law has traditionally been founded on the three-pillared structure of Public Trust Doctrine, Precautionary Principle, and Sustainable Development. However, in the aftermath of the pandemic decade, a palpable shift in focus towards “ease of doing business” has led to a series of legislative and executive measures which erode these foundational principles of environmental law and industrial growth. This paper aims to critically analyze the apparent tension between the rapid expansion of infrastructure facilitated by a watering down of Environmental Impact Assessment Notification and significant changes in the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and the legal protections granted to indigenous communities under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. A doctrinal and socio-legal analysis of recent judicial pronouncements and executive actions in conjunction with the Forest Conservation Amendment Act, 2023 reveals a fundamental breach of intra-generational equity by the state in assuming a role from mere custodianship of environmental resources towards becoming facilitators of de-reservation. Building on the Niyamgiri verdict and the Supreme Court’s denouncement of ex-post facto clearances in Alembic Pharmaceuticals Ltd. v. Rohit Prajapati and the 2025 decision in Vanashakti, a new framework is proposed whereby Gram Sabha consent is made binding, National Green Tribunal institutional autonomy is strengthened, and environmental law is recognized as more than a mere procedural aspect of development.