Last week the news headlines reflected yet another evolving tragedy when the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) reported that 13%-15% of tested groundwater samples in Delhi contain uranium beyond the permissible limit for human consumption, she said.

"Shamefully, water samples from Punjab and Haryana reflect even higher levels of uranium contamination. One does not need to dwell on the frightening health implications that regular consumption of such water for daily activities can have on impacted populations," the former Congress president said.

These news items cannot be seen disparately as they are each causes and consequences of a crisis that has engulfed India in the last decade - a deep-seated and continuing disregard for the environment in government policy making, she said.

"Ever since coming to power, the Modi government has displayed a particularly venal streak of cynicism in relation to environmental protection, combining its proclivity to encourage the reckless exploitation of natural resources with a callous disregard for consequences on the environment," Gandhi said.

The Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2023 exempted large categories of land and projects from forest clearance rules, easing diversion for other purposes, she claimed.

Gandhi further alleged that the Draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020 sought to dilute public hearings, expand exemptions and reduce compliance reporting.

The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2018 eased construction rules along India's shorelines, opening ecologically sensitive coastal areas and fishing communities' habitats to commercial real estate and industrial activity, Gandhi said.

"The Environment Ministry has more often been in the news for circumventing due process and weakening regulations rather than implementing them or taking proactive measures to halt the slide," the Congress leader said.

Another emerging trend has been an insidious tendency to pit the environment against the local communities that protect it, when politically convenient for the government, she said.

The Forest Survey of India has been mischievously attributing the loss of forest cover over the last decade to the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, Gandhi said.

"Shockingly, even the Minister concerned has echoed the same claims. In June 2024, the National Tiger Conservation Authority called for the eviction of almost 65,000 families from tiger reserves across the country," she said.

"It was not just a breach of the spirit of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 which mandates that all relocations must be voluntary; it was also unnecessarily inimical, ranging the environment against local communities," Gandhi said.

"India needs a new deal for the environment. First, we must resolve to do no further harm. We must halt the large-scale deforestation that is planned or currently underway across the country: in Great Nicobar, in north Chhattisgarh's Hasdeo Aranya, and in Madhva Pradesh's Dhirauli," she said.

"We need to crack down on the rampant illegal mining in the Aravalli range and other eco-sensitive regions such as the Western Ghats. We need to put an end to the indiscriminate destruction of mountains in the Himalayan belt which has exacted a heavy toll on human lives these past few years," Gandhi added.

She said on a policy level, there is a need to urgently review the laws and policy changes of the last decade which have "led us down this disastrous path."

"The Modi government must withdraw the amendments it bulldozed through Parliament in the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 as well as the Forest Conservation Rules (2022) - which are anti-Adivasi and allow the clearing of forests without consulting those who live there," she said.

The blatantly illogical and dangerous practice of providing post-facto environmental clearances to big corporations that violate environmental laws -- one of the Modi Government's few home-grown policy innovations --cannot continue, she asserted.