The High Court pointed out to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that the EIA 2006 notification (Environment Impact Assessment 2006 notification) did not extend to poultry farms and made it mandatory to include livestock units. The Centre however claims that the present regulation and the safeguards already exist in the system plus these companies are already protecting themselves from an environmental angle.
Recently, activist and animal rights advocate Gauri Maulekhi from BanAnimelast year filed a petition to NGT asking to include slaughterhouses and meat processing units under the EIA, 2006. The main points that Maul-e-ki emphasized were the implications related to high water use, wrong disposal of waste polluting water sources, and zoonotic diseases as potential health risks.
Subsequently, the Union Ministry of Environment developed an affidavit and a report invited by NGT. They noted contributions of a working group comprised of eight members, constituted in August of the previous year. Ministry refutes the argument, stating that a comprehensive regulatory framework functioning in synergy with local authority level administration, pollution control boards, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), and the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development (APEDA) caters to all environmental problems determined in the course of operation of slaughterhouses and meat processing industries.
The Ministry points out that one of the priorities is not new regulations but rather the additional administrative requirements in existing regulations. The complaint raised the shortcomings of unorganized slaughterhouses and meat processing units as the fountainhead of the petitioner’s grievances. According to the report, the working group has already developed the priority area, i.e., modernization undertakings.
Apart from the welfare of the animals, the working group’s report also focuses on the issue of improved regulation and monitoring of the proceedings in illegal slaughterhouses that cause environmental degeneration. It implies the association CPCB and state-level monitoring group, with assistance from local authorities, to take action against illegal units, is a move toward the organized sector.
Putting it another way, the Centre thinks that the currently existing guidelines and safeguards are enough to regulate slaughterhouses and meat processing industry, hence the Centre not consider the inclusion of the factories to the EIA, 2006. At the same time, we should concentrate on performing the current regulations and bringing uncontrolled general units into line with the current environmental problems.
