Planning as a tool for regional environmental quality management

Generally, each developmental activity involves land use, and these land uses are likely to have an overall impact on the environment. The relevant land uses that have a bearing on the environment are trade and industry, housing construction, transport facilities, utilities, refuse/hazardous waste and waste water installations, quarrying/mining, power generation, recreation and tourism, etc. While taking up developmental activities, the assimilative capacities of the environment to air or water or land pollution are rarely considered. Also, due to lack of proper land-use controls, developmental activities tend to be haphazard and uncontrolled thus leading to over use, congestion, poor land-use compatibility, etc. The solutions of pollution control in the individual sectors namely, industry, transport, etc. do not solve the problems entirely, since pollution leads to deterioration of the natural systems, and likewise, the socioeconomic living conditions. The CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) initiated the environmental planning and mapping programme more popularly known as 'Zoning Atlas for Siting of Industries', in 1995, in the country. The programme is targeted at protecting the environment and achieving sustainable development by proper planning of the developmental activities, especially in the industrial sector. The programme was taken up in view of the increasing environmental risks from the industries and the growing problems and concerns due to pollution. The growing public awareness and the trend of public interest litigation against environmentally incompatible development necessitate corrective measures at the initial stage itself. The people today, are demanding good quality living conditions. A situation has reached where the industrialists have started taking assistance from the government in locating environmentally-sound sites for their units. With the wide response received from the pilot phase initiated in 1995 covering district-wise zoning atlas for 19 districts in 14 states, the programme has now extended up to 2001/2002 under the 'Environment Management and Capacity Building Programme' of the World Bank. The programme has widened its activities and several environmental planning activities at various levels have been taken up. The present paper details the environmental planning of activities taken up by the CPCB and the methodology adopted for identifying new industrial sites/zones.