Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment Award

LIFE has been linked to some of India`s most important recent environmental campaigns. In 2010, LIFE helped shut down a major bauxite mining project of the British company Vedanta in the eastern state of Odisha. With the help of LIFE, the case was brought by the Dongria Kondh tribal peoples, whose land was reportedly devastated by the mine. India`s Supreme Court ruled that community approval was required before Vedanta could obtain a mining permit. The case is often considered the most important victory in the history of environmental lawsuits in India. Later, in India`s first environmental referendum, the Dongria rejected the proposal for the mine. Since then, LIFE has continued to oppose powerful interests that threaten the well-being of people and nature, ensuring better environmental protection for communities across India. LIFE was created to bridge this gap between India`s justice system and those working to protect the country`s natural resources and wildlife. The organization`s founders, Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Choudhary, met at law school. After working in the NGO sector, including at Colin Gonsalves` Human Rights Law Network, winner of the 2017 Right Livelihood Award, Dutta realized that there was a lack of organizations focused solely on environmental disputes.

LIFE was created in 2005 to meet this need. Dutta is the Managing Trustee, while Choudhary is the founding Trustee of LIFE. The acquisition of Vedanta brought more work of a similar nature. In 2005, Dutta and his former colleague Rahul Choudhary partnered to take on cases exclusively in the areas of environmental, rights and travel law. This initiative became LIFE, which was registered as a trust in 2008. Dutta is a fiduciary manager, focusing on business and litigation; As an administrator, Choudhary, 47, leads field efforts and case research. When he took over the Niyamgiri case in 2004, Dutta said he had no real idea what he was dealing with. «It was one of my first cases and overnight I had to deal with great lawyers who acted for the government of Odisha and Vedanta,» says Dutta, now 47. Rahul Choudhary is also a founding member of LIFE as one of the directors. He is responsible for the Litigation Division. He holds a law degree from the University of Delhi and has been practicing as an environmental lawyer for 22 years.

Life supports environmental democracy with a focus on access to information, public participation and access to justice. LIFE is based on payments from litigants who can afford it, as well as research and outreach grants from around the world. The 1 million kroner (₹85 lakh) prize that comes with his Right Livelihood Award is now added to the kitten. An important aspect of the LIFE approach is the emphasis on cooperation with affected communities. For this reason, LIFE is never the litigator. Instead, the organization sees itself as legal and scientific support for grassroots groups fighting on the front lines of environmental protection. LIFE sees its work as promoting «environmental democracy», which means empowering communities and demanding an active role in decisions about the environment on which their livelihoods depend. This stems from the recognition that India`s forests and biodiversity depend crucially on protecting the rights of marginalized communities such as indigenous peoples, forest dwellers, farmers and traditional fishers. Therefore, LIFE also focuses on supporting and educating communities struggling to protect their livelihoods, culture and natural resources on which their entire identity and survival depend. LIFE`s strategy was to work with a range of actors – human rights groups, conservation organisations, grassroots activists and government – to ensure environmental justice and uphold the rule of law. LIFE was founded in 2005 by lawyers Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Choudhary.

Today, the organization`s lawyers are among the best Indian lawyers in the public interest. LIFE has helped communities tackle some of India`s biggest environmental threats: building environmentally destructive projects in violation of the law, preventing deforestation, and requiring industrial polluters to pay for damage to the environment and public health. The 8,000-strong tribe had won. His lawyer was Ritwick Dutta, co-founder of the Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), which recently won one of this year`s four Right Livelihood Awards. The prizes, also known as the alternative Nobel Prize, were established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull and are awarded annually «to honor those who provide practical and exemplary responses to the most pressing challenges we face today.» Through its creative blend of litigation, capacity building and promoting more efficient judicial structures, LIFE has raised the bar on environmental protection for people across India. Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) aims to protect the environment through the creative use of laws and legal processes in India. Fighting alongside grassroots communities and organisations, LIFE has tackled some of India`s most significant environmental threats and set precedents. Through litigation, capacity building and the promotion of more efficient judicial structures, LIFE has significantly improved environmental protection for the people of India. «I believe the unique attribute of LIFE is that, through its legal work, it focuses on promoting what it calls `environmental democracy`,» says Souparno Banerjee, director of outreach at the Centre for Science and Environment think tank. «For a nation that continues to operate in injustice at every stage, at a time when we are plagued by multiple crises ranging from climate change to zoonotic pandemics, institutions like LIFE must be nurtured, strengthened and supported. During a decade-long legal battle, LIFE`s criticism of an EIA study was used by local communities to block the construction of a 2,640-megawatt coal-fired power plant.

The project would have severely affected the livelihoods and environment of farming communities in Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh. LIFE showed that important information was hidden in the project`s EIA report and was able to obtain a judgment in favour of the community in 2013. Although the project received new approval from the Indian government in 2015 based on a new impact assessment, it was immediately challenged in court on the grounds that the studies were faulty and construction had never begun. The permit finally expired in March 2020, so there`s no reason to start work anytime soon. LIFE was founded in 2008 with a mission to promote environmental democracy by facilitating access to information, public participation and access to justice on environmental issues. LIFE`s mission is based on the belief that effective environmental protection is possible when the citizens concerned have an effective voice on environmental issues. Ten years into their struggle, 12 villages in Odisha`s Niyamgiri Hills have voted in India`s first environmental referendum. That was in 2013. They had waited years to speak. Now they have voted unanimously against a huge bauxite mine proposed by Vedanta to supply its alumina refinery in the region. Headquarters: New Delhi, India Year founded: 2005 Website: thelifeindia.org.in Twitter: @lifeindia2016 Facebook: @TheLIFEIndia Instagram: @legalinitiativeforforest Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE) is an organization dedicated to protecting the environment in India through the creative use of laws and legal processes. LIFE works with communities through a grassroots approach: it supports and empowers often vulnerable populations so that they can oppose powerful interests and have a voice in the decision-making process, while strengthening institutions and reforming laws.

India has strong environmental legislation and an active civil society; However, access to justice for those seeking to protect India`s remaining forests and biodiversity is often limited.