COMMENTARY Economic & Political Weekly EPW MARCH 2, 2019 vol lIV no 9 13 ‘Environment’ in the Election Manifestos Asi Guha, Elphin Tom Joe The authors benefited from the insights of Abhijit Guha and the infrastructural support of Indian Institute of Forest Management. They are thankful for the comments of the anonymous reviewer. Asi Guha (asi.guha@gmail.com) and Elphin Tom Joe ( tom.joe.252@gmail.com) are studying at the Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal. Implementation of the environmental agendas put forward in the election manifestos of 2014 of eight major political parties is found to be unsatisfactory. There is a need for more synergy between the election agendas and their implementation to tackle environmental issues and the impacts of climate change. T here are many instances when environmental concerns become pivotal for elections. This, how- ever, does not hold true for India as much as for the Western or European countries. It is worthwhile then to explore how climate change and environmental issues have been viewed and addressed by the political parties in India. For this purpose, the 2014 parliamentary elec- tion manifestos of eight major political parties—Indian National Congress (INC) , Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India (Marxist)—CPI(M) , Communist Party of India (CPI), Samajwadi Party, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) and Shiv Sena are reviewed on the policies and promises stated in relation to environ- ment and climate, with the benefit of a hindsight view of the ground realities in terms of implementation and responses to environmental crises. Indian National Congress The INC emphasised on building a pro- fessional agency to smoothen out envi- ronmental clearance processes and water conservation for agriculture, rural and urban development. They also talked about providing clean cooking fuel across the country and launch “Green National Accounts” to ensure that costs of environmental degradation get re- flected in national accounts (Indian National Congress 2014). Although they all sound exceptional as election agenda, a contrary picture emerged on the ground. Even though the INC put water conserva- tion in agriculture as an agendum, Har- yana and Karnataka, where the party was in power in 2014, revealed a gloomy scenario. The drop in groundwater level in Haryana almost doubled from 1999 to 2016 (Duhan 2017). An alarming pattern was observed in Karnataka, as revealed by the report of the Department of For- est, Ecology and Environment, Govern- ment of Karnataka ( EMPRI 2015), Depletion of groundwater table due to over- draft at 64 per cent is a serious cause for concern. As a result, the critical water flow in the rivers has affected the river ecosys- tem. While climate change has seriously impacted the rainfall pattern in the state, deforestation in ecologically sensitive areas of Western Ghats has limited the river flows in the basins and also caused silt accumula- tion in the Dams. The overdraft of ground water has drastically shortened the water replenishment. Lakes and tanks bunds are mercilessly encroached and diverted for agriculture and other development purposes allowing them for gradual demise. Congress was in government from 1999 to 2004 and from 2013 to 2018 in Karnataka and no comprehensive water conservation policy had been put in place. Exploitation of ground and sur- face water continued as usual. Bharatiya Janata Party The BJP in its 2014 election manifesto put climate change mitigation initiatives and working with global communities on this matter as its main agenda. The manifesto mentioned encouraging cleaner produc- tion, promoting cleaner fuels and the con- cept of proactive carbon credits. It also included pollution control, social forestry, green buildings, promotion of research and development in environment tech- nologies and setting up a foolproof mech- anism for protection and preservation of wildlife ( BJP 2014). The party emphasised the importance of conservation of the Himalayas and listed few steps such as (i) launching “National Mission on Him- alayas,” (ii) creation of a “Himalayan sustainability fund,” (iii) creation of a central university dedicated to the Him- alayan technology, and (iv) thrust to programmes devised to arrest melting of Himalayan glaciers. Accordingly, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance ( NDA) government has taken some proactive steps with re- gard to climate change. India has become a party to the Paris Climate Agreement by signing it. Additionally, India has tar- geted to achieve 100 GW solar power capacity by 2022. While the power and new and renewable energy minister