Minister of State for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar's answer in Parliament on August 13 on the reconstitution of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) is worth examining.

In reply to four questions by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Lok Sabha member M.B. Rajesh on the Board being recast without the mandatory number of non-government members and the reasons for violations, he blandly said this was done through a notification dated July 22.

While the Board was reconstituted, it did not have the five mandatory NGO representatives or the ten persons to be nominated by the Central government from among eminent conservationists, ecologists and environmentalists, as mandated by Section 5A of the Wildlife Protection Act. Besides, the notification only referred to the Standing Committee.

It was not surprising therefore that the Supreme Court on August 25 stayed the decisions of the diluted Standing Committee of the NBWL, after a petition challenged the constitution of the Board. Read