THE Government of India has promulgated a number of acts, rules, and notifications for the protection and preservation of the environment that are addressed at various sectors – agriculture, industry, forestry, energy, mining, tourism, transportation and human settlement. The defence sector has not been explicitly included within their purview, perhaps out of deference to the military mission. In recent times however, the environmental dimension is being increasingly introduced more directly into the military role.The International Association of Retired Generals and Admirals specifically resolved in 1993 to include the military role in environmental protection and restoration. There are several examples of microlevel initiatives at reforestation and greening of the military areas, use of renewable sources of energy, recycling of wastes and other pollution control measures. The Indian military forces have also frequently extended logistics support to the civilian sector agencies in several environmental conservation and documentation efforts in difficult terrain. Many of these efforts are based on individual interest and initiative of the commanding officers.  The Army Environmental Cell organizes annual Environmental Meetings, with representatives from the Army Commands, Navy, Air Force,Territorial Army, Border Roads and Environmental Ministry of the Government of India, as well as other nongovernmental environmental organizations to discuss and present  the progress on environmental concerns (http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/v7850e/v7850e12.htm). All of these measures recognize the importance of environmental conservation and the role of the military. These are largely voluntary measures and there is no institutionalization of activities related to environmental conservation and protection of military lands through formal policies and procedures which mandate compliance with national environmental policies and laws, while furthering the military mission.

The need for such institutionalization will become increasingly relevant and urgent as available lands for military purposes decline with rising population, demand for land from other sectors rises, and as training and testing activities are modernized and intensified in existing defencecontrolled areas. Environmental groups and the government will also apply increasing pressure for compliance with environmental quality standards. This has happened in developed countries like USA, where following the enactment of a series of acts related to the environment conservation and protection, the Department of Defense adopted a policy that commits itself to act responsibly in public interest in managing its lands and resources. It directed its decision-makers and commanders to introduce integrated natural resources management plans while ensuring that they support the primary military mission. The defence forces in India too will have to be concerned, sooner than later, about long-term sustainability of military lands for testing, training and residential purposes, and conformity with national environmental policies and regulations which aim at sustainable development of the regions of which their lands are a part.

The objective of this article is to look ahead and understand how environmental concerns can be anticipated and procedures for addressing them integrated into the military mission in India. In doing so, three factors are kept in view. The first is that land use is vital to the sustainability of the defence mission, but land management is not the primary mission of the military forces. The second factor is that the procedures for protecting and improving environmental quality must be science-based. The third factor is that for effective implementation of an environmental policy, there is a need to have in place a standard management  framework that will permit planning, monitoring and evaluating the performance of the system on a ‘corporate-wide’ scale.

Accordingly, the article is developed in three parts. The first part presents an international defence forces perspective on ecosystems and environmental management as applied to the defence lands. The purpose of this is to understand and learn about the processes of integrating environmental concerns into defence planning, so that similar processes can be initiated in India. The question of implementation of environmental management across the defence installations on a ‘corporate-wide’ process by employing appropriate environmental management systems is addressed in part two. In the final part, the implications of these developments for integrating environmental concerns into defence planning in India are presented.