Shashi Kant Yadav
Academic and research departments
Surrey Centre for International and Environmental Law, School of Law, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.About
My research project
Regulating fracking as transitional technology in India and Australia: a comparative contextual approach to the precautionary principleMy research broadly focuses on how law addresses the limitations of science in predicting the impact of energy transitional technologies on climate change mitigation measures.
Supervisors
My research broadly focuses on how law addresses the limitations of science in predicting the impact of energy transitional technologies on climate change mitigation measures.
My qualifications
Affiliations and memberships
News
In the media
Teaching
Land Law - I
Publications
India has characterised shale gas as a transitional energy source and is planning to commercially scale the extraction of shale gas through hydraulic fracturing (fracking). Currently, India has announced 56 fracking projects spread across six Indian states. In doing so, exploration of shale gas resources has started in India. The regulations that govern conventional extraction processes are also applicable to fracking activities. The conflation of fracking with conventional drilling processes in India's regulatory approach may have implications for the country's water security, given the unique risks that fracking poses to water resources. This article analyses India's regulatory framework applicable to fracking-specific water (FSW) issues. In doing so, this article identifies four key paradigms of water security and maps these key paradigms with the US fracking experience, identifying four key FSW issues. Subsequently, this article evaluates if India's multi-level regulatory system regulates the identified four FSW issues. In conclusion, this research finds that before commercially scaling fracking operations, India must conduct a scientific inquiry on the impact of proposed fracking projects on its water resources. In doing so, it must reexamine its regulations at the federal and state levels to comprehensively cover FSW issues.
Additional publications
Ram Mohan, M. P., and Shashi Kant Yadav. "The Oil and Gas Sector in India: Balancing Business Policies and Public Interest by the Supreme Court of India." Global Energy Law and Sustainability 2.1 (2021): 1-21. Edinburgh University Press.
Yadav, Shashi Kant, Gopal K. Sarangi, and M. P. Ram Mohan. "Hydraulic fracturing and groundwater contamination in India: evaluating the need for precautionary action." Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law 38.1 (2020): 47-63.
Yadav, Shashikant, and Anjali Sherawat. "Continual Diminishing of the Aravalli Hills--Assessing Intergenerational Equity." The Economic and Political Weekly, ISSN (2019): 0012-9976.
Yadav, Shashikant, Gopal K. Sarangi, and M. P. Ram Mohan. "Challenges in Shale Gas Production Cannot Be Resolved by Generic Environment Clearance Processes." Economic & Political Weekly 53 (2018).