Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment

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2021

Right Livelihood Award

Sep 30, 2021: The Times of India

Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment (LIFE), a Delhi-based environmental law advocacy group, received 2021 Right Livelihood Award, Sweden’s alternative to Nobel Prize, on Wednesday for its efforts to protect environment in India through creative use of law and legal processes.

Founded in 2005 by lawyers Ritwick Dutta and Rahul Choudhary, the organisation has been an active participant in National Green Tribunal to fight cases of environmental importance across the country while also representing vulnerable communities.

LIFE “works with communities through a grassroots approach: it assists and empowers vulnerable populations to stand up against powerful interests and have a voice in the decision-making process, while also strengthening institutions and reforming laws”, Right Livelihood stated.

The other awardees include Cameroon’s Marthe Wandou, Russian activist Vladimir Slivyak and Canada’s Freda Huson. The first Right Livelihood award was given in 1980 and it aims to recognise individuals or organisations that provide practice and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world.

One of the early successes of LIFE was a case against the British-mining company, Vedanta, in Odisha, which became a precedent-setting judgment when the Supreme Court recognised that the local community’s consent was required for such a project to commence. “Since then, LIFE has continued to stand up against powerful interests threatening the wellbeing of people and nature, securing better environmental protections for communities across India,” Right Livelihood pointed out.

Co-founder Dutta said the organisation was honoured to receive the award, which served as a recognition of not only the hard work that had been put in by them but also the collective work and fight of countless groups at the grassroots level.

“Using law as a tool, LIFE has assisted groups in participating effectively in the environmental decision-making process,” he said. “This award recognises the centrality of people’s struggle in the protection of environment. It recognises that impacted communities have the ability and courage to take on the most powerful vested interest,” said Dutta. He also referred to other similar organisations such as Chipko Movement and Narmada Bachao Andolan.

Choudhary, the other co-founder, said the recognition would help them continue the work for communities across the country. “It will help us strive more to work for different communities and help us fight to conserve resources,” he added.