Jagannath University

Department of Land Management and Law

Faculty of Law

Assignment on:
Loopholes or failures of Environment Conservation Act, 1995 and Environment
Conservation Rules, 1997

Prepared for:
Hamida Sultana
Lecturer
Department of Land Management and Law
Jagannath University

Prepared by:
Utsab Chowdhury
B190502022

Page 1 of 5
To,
Hamida Sultana
Lecturer
Department of Land Management and Law
Jagannath University, Dhaka

Subject: Submission of Assignment.

Dear Mam,
With due to respect, I want to state that I am Utsab Chowdhury student of batch
4th of your department. An assignment on “Loopholes or failures of
Environment Conservation Act, 1995 and Environment Conservation Rules,
1997” was assigned to me. A pleasure to inform you that I have completed my
task within due Time, and hereby with your permission. I want to submit my
assignment report. Proudly Mentioning that the task gives me a great opportunity
to cultivate new knowledge and experience Beyond my regular method.

Sincerely yours,

Utsab Chowdhury
ID: B190502022
Batch: 4th
Department: Land Management and Law
Jagannath University, Dhaka

Page 2 of 5
Introduction
The Environment Conservation Act, 1995 has been enacted to provide for conservation of the
environment, improvement of environmental standards and control and mitigation of
environmental pollution. This Act authorizes the central government to improve and protect
environmental quality, reduce and control pollution from the sources, and restrict or prevent
the setting and operation of any industrial facility on environmental grounds.
The Environment Conservation Rules, 1997 provide for declaration of Ecologically Critical
Areas, classify industrial activities projects in 4 categories for purposes of licenses, prescribe
requirements for each category for obtaining a license, prescribe the duration of licenses,
provide for appeals against notices, instructions, or orders, and provide in relation with the
determination of pollution standards. The Government may decide what activities are allowed
in Ecologically Critical Areas. The areas may include mangroves, game reserves, marshes, and
forest areas. There are four categories for industrial activities and projects: green, orange a,
orange b, and red. The classified projects shall first obtain an environment license. For each
category precise conditions for obtaining licenses are established including environmental
examination reports and environment plans.
The Environment Conservation Act, 1995 and the Environment Conservation Rules, 1997 are
not exhaustive and the both are incompatible with the demands of time. They should be
amended as per the demands of time. The BECA, 1995 should encompass all the environmental
issues which are still out of the touch. All the ambiguities and lacunas in the both should be
removed. People’s participation in environmental decision making must be ensured and
protected by law.1

Environmental Downfall:
The Environmental Conservation Act, 1995 & Environmental Conservation Rules, 1997 were
enacted to corroborate the purpose. The Department of Environment is a follow-up to the
Stockholm Conference, 1972 which deals with the environmental problems of Bangladesh.
Like most least developed and third world countries, Bangladesh is encountering acute
environmental downfalls. Presently Bangladesh is explicitly in the grips of land degradation,
soil erosion, salinity in the water, unplanned urbanization, discharge of untreated human and
industrial sewage, deforestation, threatened wildlife and marine biodiversity, etc. 2
Land Degradation: Land degradation is caused by multiple forces, including extreme weather
conditions, particularly drought. It is also caused by human activities that pollute or degrade
the quality of soils and land utility. The major land degradation types occurring in Bangladesh
are soil fertility and organic matter depletion, water erosion, riverbank erosion, waterlogging,

1 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation, Bangladesh Gazette, Supplementary Issue of 28
August, 1997, pp. 293-303.
2 Nadim Zawad Akil, “Loopholes and Inadequacy: why our environmental watchdog struggles to protect the

environment” <https://www.tbsnews.net/thoughts/loopholes-and-inadequacy-why-our-environmental-
watchdog-struggles-protect-environment> accessed on 06 May, 2023

Page 3 of 5
salinization, acidification, compaction or pan formation, desertification in the northern part,
soil pollution, and unplanned industrial development 3.
Soil Erosion: Shifting cultivation is a popular agricultural practice among the farmers which
is responsible for deforestation and soil erosion.
Unplanned urbanization: Unplanned urbanization refers to the gradual expansion of an
unconnected, unplanned, unequal and haphazardly scattered city without thinking about
sustainability future risks.

Loopholes and Inadequacy:

It is needless to speak about the necessity of a healthy environment in human life. To safeguard
and enrich the quality of the environment in Bangladesh, the Department of Environment
(DOE) was established under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate
Change in 1989.
I. One of the major drawbacks is only a few section of the Act and rules deal with
conservation, protection and enrichment of the quality of the environment. There are
21 sections in the Environment Conservation Act and on the other rules, there are 17
rules in the Environment Conservation Rules. The main aim of Conservation or
preservation is to provide protection to the ecosystem from degradation and therefore
the consumption of resources must be reduced. The Conservation of the organism is
also essential for proper maintenance of the ecosystem balance. The Act gives
operational definitions of terms that historically did not exist, including ecosystem,
pollution, waste and hazardous substance. Seven areas in Bangladesh are defined as
Ecologically Critical Areas under this law.
II. The Act and rules mostly talk about offences and punishments. When criminal penalties
are prescribed for an environmental wrong under law , such wring is called an
environmental crime. Environmental Conservation Act, 1995 is an effective legislation
which incorporates sufficient sanctions to stop individuals and companies from
committing environmental crimes. Section 15 of the said Act states the punishments for
different environmental crimes. Under this Act, punishment for release of extreme
pollutants is imprisonment for minimum 1 year or fine of maximum Tk. 2 lac or both.
Section 17 gives the sufferer the right to sue for compensation too. Additionally, the
punishments assigned for some of the offences committed under this are also
unbalanced.4
III. The insufficient number of provisions regarding conservation is a significant barrier.
Interestingly, Section 6(a) says that the production and stocking of these sorts of bags
are not prohibited if it is done for exporting purposes. This is a clear violation of the
“No Harm Principle” established under Stockholm Conference, 1972 and the Rio
Declaration, 1992, which is regulated by the international courts and punishable under
Customary International laws. Section 5 of the act regulates the provision regarding
Ecologically Critical Areas (ECAs). The DOE has declared 13 ecologically critical
areas where the government banned the initialization and continuation of industrial
activities or processes.

3 World Health Organization, Climate change: Land degradation and desertification.

4 Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, 1995 and Bangladesh Environment Conservation Rules, 1997

Page 4 of 5
IV. The irrational classifications of industrial units in the schedule -I of the rules is notable.
Specifically, ship-breaking and assembling of batteries should be placed in the Red
category instead of Orange-B with public toilets placed in the Orange-A category
instead of the Orange-B category considering their impact on the environment. The
penalties for regulation violations by the ship-breaking industries are very limited.
Almost every offender has to go through the same sort of punishments with no
diversification regarding the gravity of the offences.
The Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act, 1995 and Rules, 1997 are not free from a
number of loopholes or shortcomings. There is a maxim that “prevention is better than cure”,
but the BECA of 1995 by the terms “improvement of environmental standards” and “mitigation
of environmental pollution” in its preamble indicates that it is cure-oriented and it only copes
with the curative measures rather than the preventive measures. The BECA, 1995,in true sense,
deals with the post-harm situations. In Section 3, the term “Government” is a vague one. It
creates the question in our minds – who is the Government under the BECA, 1995? There is
no reference to any specific criteria for determining the “Government” who would set up the
Department of Environment (DoE) headed by the Director General (DG). Section 4 of the Act
gives unfettered and unlimited powers to the Director General (DG) of the Department of
Environment (DoE). The wording ‘may’ in section 4 denotes that the DG is not bound to take
necessary measures to conserve the environment and the DG can do anything at his sweet will.
Section 5 of the Act requires the Government to declare the “ecologically critical areas”. It is
palpable that the environment experts can play a vital role in declaring the ecologically critical
areas. Section 5 has no reference to the matter. Section 12 of the Act speaks about
“Environment Clearance Certificate”. It is yet unclear what will happen if the Department of
Environment (DoE) is unable to meet the timetable to grant the Environment Clearance
Certificate (ECC).

Conclusion:
To take prompt legal action against environmental pollution, the government has passed several
laws where the concept of sustainable development or right to healthy life was not incorporated
of the past two or five decades back laws. However, it is the outcome of the very recent
concerns about environment. Such a law cannot play any effective role in combating
environmental pollution in today’s Bangladesh, where over population; poverty and illiteracy
are aggravating this crisis day by day. But if we consider the recently passed Bangladesh
Environment Conservation Act, 1995, then we can observe that this Act includes all pollution
control measures for achieving sustainable environment and development in Bangladesh,
although, Bangladesh is a signatory to as many as forty four international conventions, treaties,
and protocols in connection with the conservation and protection of environment and ecology.
Some of them have been ratified. But there are some others which are yet to be ratified such as
Aarhus Convention (Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision
making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters 1998), Espoo Convention (Convention
on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Trans boundary Context 1991), London Convention
1972, Helsinki Convention 1992 etc.5

5Upal Aditya Oikya, “Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act 1995: An analysis and Review (November 21,
2017) <https://bdjls.org/bangladesh-environment-conservation-act-1995-an-analysis-review/> accessed on 06
May, 2023

Page 5 of 5