A Task Force set up by the Department of Pharmaceuticals on the environment hazards in the pharma sector has recommended a national action plan on disaster management, ways to transform the existing industrial parks into eco-friendly, and basic parameters for the creation of new parks, while submitting an operational plan for the period upto 2012-13.

The Task Force also suggested upgradation of the existing Environment Cell at the Department to an Environment & Hazard Management Cell having the responsibility for overall planning, coordinating and managing the activities including providing necessary approvals for implementation of the activities, making budgetary provisions etc. The division would be supported by the Environment & Hazard Management Cell to be established at FICCI, New Delhi.

The Department of Pharma constituted a Task Force to guide the department on the schemes and programmes to be taken towards environment and hazard management in the pharma sector. The Task Force formed a core group and culled out the schemes, along with the action plan detailing activities to be taken up, targets/results to be achieved, financial mechanisms (preferably PPP models) and implementation process, it is learnt.

The overall objective of the proposed Action Plan is to systematically achieve environment and hazard management in pharmaceuticals sector in a phased manner following the state-of-the-art approaches and sustainable models integrating environment, energy, climate and hazard issues, and enabling supportive capacity, development of the key stakeholders/organizations, according to the report by the task force.

Pilot efforts will be held in the identified areas of work in a few States like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, along with capacity building through organisational development and documentation. In the second phase, it will be extended to more States. Third phase of the action plan will be state and national level policies, strategies and interventions.

Clean manufacturing processes including CDM (clean development mechanisms), improvement of environment performances, hazard management in individual industries, Transformation of existing parks into eco industrial parks based on sustainable industrial development models integrating environment, hazard, energy and climate issues, planning of the upcoming industrial parks on sustainable development, and development of the national action plan on disaster management in the pharma industry are among the recommendations of the task force.

"In upto 100 selected pharmaceuticals industries, environmental performance improvement, safety and occupational hazard management, development of onsite/offsite emergency plans and cleaner production will be demonstrated through the concepts of ecoprofit, emergency/hazard management, energy efficiency, CDM, cleaner production techniques etc. leading to improved manufacturing processes, improved environmental quality and reduced risks/impacts on environment," the report said.