P B Sahasranaman, a advocate with the High Court of Kerala and Supreme Court of India, and involved with Public Interest Environmental Cases, has come out with a well-researched book on environmental laws. Published in the year 2009, Handbook of Environmental Law provides us with a comprehensive study of the legislations, regulations, and case laws related to environmental protection in India. Till three decades ago, India lacked environmental laws and legislations. In course of time, the Supreme Court of India interpreted the Article 21 of the Constitution of India, declaring that ‘right to life’ also includes the right to the environment. Since then, environmental law in India has advanced much more than in any other country. In this book, Sahasranaman outlines the evolution of environmental laws along with the ancient literature, statutes, the case laws, with a brief description on foreign cases and laws in India. According to the author, ‘a study of the environment cannot be complete unless it is accompanied by scientific and historical bases from which the need for protection arose in the first place.’ He has tried to establish the facts in a very thorough fashion.

The book starts with a comprehensive introduction on the environment and Constitution. Taking the outcome of the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment as the starting point, the author elucidates the various international conventions, constitutional amendments, legislations, provisions of various international conventions, and legislations ratified in India to protect the environment. He looks at how the environment is placed in the Indian constitution, but also in constitutions of other countries. The introduction gives an outline of judicial activism leading to the evolution of environmental laws in our country. In the introduction, the author gives special attention to the Constitution of India and how the UN Declaration has resulted in the 42 Amendment of the Constitution. The 42 Amendment imposed on the state, as well as on the citizens of India, the need to protect the natural environment. The book is then divided into three parts. Part one deals with the ‘development of environmental jurisprudence’. This section describes in detail the basic environmental protection laws both at the international and national level. Part two deals with different kinds of pollution, such as air pollution, defilement of freshwater bodies, marine pollution, degradation of land and forest, and the laws and policies to help check the pollution. Part three of the book deals with the challenges that we face and the task ahead to help save the environment. Along with the challenges, this section also talks about disaster management and rehabilitation. In these four parts, including the introduction, the author examines various issues related to environment protection, sustainable development, environmental impact assessment, water resource management, waste management, forest conservation, wildlife protection, climate change, disaster management and rehabilitation, the inter-generational equity principle, and environmental taxes.

Written in a very lucid and convincing way, this book is an essential reading material for students, environmentalists, legal professionals, and policy-makers. It is an essential read to understand and comprehend environmental laws and regulations.