Regulations of unprecedented scope and impact have been passed by the Government of India in order to protect and improve India's natural environment and resources. For example, the “Water Act” of 1974, “Air Act” of 1981, and Environment Protection Act of 1986 addressed the pollution issues related to water, air, and other environmental subsections, respectively. In addition, there has been a series of programs related to the Environmental Audit (later on renamed as the Environmental Statement), Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Cleaner Production, setting up of Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP), state-wise inventorization of hazardous wastes, etc. There has also been a concerted effort towards formulating rules and guidelines for safe disposal of municipal solid wastes as well as bio-medical wastes. An attempt has been made here, in this chapter, to summarize the salient provisions and the corresponding rationale behind the Indian environmental laws and regulations.

Laws and Regulations for Safe Disposal of Wastewater

In India, many laws on water pollution control as well as ambient water quality protection have been passed and implemented in the past 140 years. Some of those landmark legislations were summarized by Prof. A. D. Patwardhan [Patwardhan, 1998]:

• Shore Nuisance (Bombay, Colaba) Act, 1853,

• The Orient Gas Co. Act, 1857,

• The Indian Penal Code, 1860,

• The Indian Easement Act, 1882,

• Indian Fisheries Act, 1897,

• Indian Port Act, 1908,

• Indian Forest Act, 1912; and

• Merchant Shipping Act, 1958.