Green crusader Calls for Fast-Track Courts for Climate Justice

Mumbai, Nov 24

India needs fast-track courts dedicated to environmental offences to ensure timely climate justice, a noted green crusader has said. Calling for urgent systemic reform, NatConnect Foundation director and Bizz Buzz columnist, BN Kumar warned that delays in prosecuting ecological violations lead to irreversible damage.

In his presentation at the Mumbai Climate Change Summit, he stressed that environmental safeguards must be placed at the heart of democratic decision-making. “Environment should be an election issue,” Kumar said at the event organised by World CSR Day and World Sustainability platforms founded by Dr RL Bhatia, a change management and organisation turnaround specialist.

Climate action, Kumar argued, cannot remain a peripheral agenda when citizens are facing rising heat, flooding, pollution and biodiversity loss across India.

In his talk titled Climate Change Is Not Sci-Fi, Kumar rejected the misconception that wetlands and mangroves are “vacant” or “wasteland”. These ecosystems, he said, are vital natural infrastructure that prevent floods, store carbon and support fisheries and wildlife. They must be treated as essential public assets, not land banks for development.

He said coexistence, transparency and community participation must anchor India’s environmental governance. Kumar renewed his appeal for environmental and climate studies “from KG to PG”, saying that a generational shift in awareness is essential for long-term resilience.

Classroom learning, he noted, must be backed by institutional enforcement. For this, he urged the creation of a dedicated green police force to investigate violations, as traditional policing and judicial systems remain severely stretched with over six lakh pending cases nationwide, including more than 80,000 before the Supreme Court.

At the summit, Kumar received an award for his “outstanding contribution” to addressing climate change. The citation hailed Navi Mumbai–based NatConnect for its sustained work in protecting India’s threatened natural habitats—wetlands, mangroves, riverscapes and urban hills. Dr. C. M. Dwivedi, Group CHRO and Director, Jivika Healthcare, presented the trophy and citation.

Under Kumar’s leadership, the organisation has steered several impactful citizen-driven campaigns. NatConnect played a pivotal role in saving DPS Lake from landfill and commercial encroachment, enabling its revival as an urban biodiversity hotspot. Kumar also championed Navi Mumbai’s “Flamingo City” identity, strengthening the case for safeguarding wetlands that host thousands of migratory birds.

NatConnect is also working with several environmental platforms on awareness campaigns around the Powai wetland ecosystem and Maharashtra’s rising leopard–human conflict, advocating ecological corridors and humane, science-based management.