ABSTRACT
Land being one of the environmental media, its regulation plays an important role in environmental protection. However, land regulation is considered as the weakest link in modern environmental law because of the constitutional protection of private property. However, in the Indian context this has not been the case because of the weak protection of private property in the Constitution. Today, neoliberal policies have permeated even the field of environmental regulation. Following neoliberal precepts, market-based instruments and cost-benefit analysis are important components of present-day environmental regulation. In this backdrop, this chapter discusses land regulation as a means for environmental protection in India. The chapter is divided into four parts. The first part is an introduction to the importance of land regulation for environmental protection. The second part looks at how in India various land regulations have approached the issue of environmental protection. The third part analyses the permeation of neoliberal policies in the field of environmental law and land issues. The fourth part looks at the role of the Indian judiciary in environmental protection and its approach towards neoliberal environmental- and land-related policies, followed by a concluding section.
