Right to Environment v. Right to Development: A Jurisprudential Analysis

The environment is a concept that is relative to whatever object it surrounds. The Environment Protection Act 1986 defines it as "environment includes water, air and land and the inter-relationship which exists among and between air, water and land and human beings, other living creatures, microorganisms and property." The World Health Organization has observed that over 70% of all human ailments are influenced by environmental deterioration. Environmental problems are affected by economic development, availability of natural resources, population, and lifestyle. The lack of policy enthusiasm towards the environment around the world, as also in India, has been based on the hypothesis that environmental degradation first increases with per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and then declines. However, empirical investigations showed that the development path might not necessarily improve the environment. The decade 2000 was declared the First UN Decade to Combat Desertification.