Intelligence

This Piece examines whether remediation, pollution-control, and restoration obligations of industrial corporate debtors survive, attach to assets, or extinguished during insolvency resolution under the IBC, and outlines a due-diligence framework for resolution applicants.

As Indian cities hurtle toward rapid urban expansion, often celebrated in terms of GDP growth, infrastructure, and high-rise skylines, a quieter crisis unfolds at the edge of this development: the disappearance of urban wetlands.

The Public Law Practice Group at Dentons Link Legal presents this edition of the Environment Law Newsletter, highlighting recent legal and regulatory developments shaping India’s environmental landscape. As concerns over environmental degradation continue to intensify, this issue examines key ecological and compliance challenges across industries with significant environmental footprints, alongside broader developments in pollution control, conservation, and sustainable resource governance

India generates an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day, of which a substantial share, approximately 10,556 tonnes daily, remains uncollected and enters landfills or the open environment. To address this, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (“MoEFCC”) has notified a national Extended Producer Responsibility (“EPR”) framework for plastic packaging under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, as amended from time to time.

The Central Pollution Control Board (“CPCB”) has issued guidelines under the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022 (“BWM Rules”) governing the collection, handling, storage and transportation of waste batteries across the country. The guidelines anchor compliance to the hazardous waste regime, prescribe chemistry-specific storage and transport protocols, and restrict who may operate collection centres, thereby seeking to prevent mishandling and illegal operations in the handling of waste batteries.

Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) considerations have increasingly become an important component of corporate decision-making, investor assessments and brand positioning in India. As businesses seek to demonstrate their environmental credentials, terms such as “green”, “eco-friendly”, “sustainable”, “carbon neutral” and “environmentally friendly” are increasingly used in advertising, product packaging, corporate communications and sustainability disclosures.