Environmental Forensics As A Tool For Corporate Accountability: Bridging The Evidentiary Gap In Environmental Enforcement And Governance
KMS Rajishkha, LLM (International Law and Organisation), School of Excellence in Law, Tamil Nadu Dr. Ambedkar Law University
ABSTRACT
Environmental governance has evolved significantly through international legal principles, domestic regulatory frameworks, and corporate sustainability obligations. Despite this normative progress, environmental enforcement continues to face a persistent evidentiary gap, whereby difficulties in establishing causation between corporate activities and environmental harm often impede effective accountability. This paper examines the extent to which environmental forensic science can bridge this evidentiary gap and strengthen corporate accountability within contemporary environmental governance frameworks. Employing a doctrinal and analytical legal research methodology, supplemented by comparative analysis, the study evaluates international and domestic legal instruments alongside the regulatory approaches of India, the United States, the European Union, Australia, and Canada. It further analyses four significant case studies the Vedanta Sterlite Copper Plant controversy, the LG Polymers gas leak, the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and the Deepwater Horizon disaster to assess the practical contribution of forensic evidence in environmental investigations and litigation. The paper explores key forensic techniques, including chemical fingerprinting, isotope analysis, environmental DNA (eDNA), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, satellite surveillance, and artificial intelligence-assisted environmental monitoring, and evaluates their evidentiary reliability within environmental adjudication. The study finds that jurisdictions possessing robust forensic infrastructure, standardised evidentiary protocols, and institutional scientific capacity achieve more effective and consistent corporate accountability than systems reliant primarily on self-reporting and conventional monitoring. It argues that environmental forensics should no longer be viewed solely as a post-incident investigative mechanism but should instead be institutionalised as a preventive governance tool through Environmental Impact Assessments, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) compliance verification, regulatory monitoring, environmental auditing, and dispute resolution. The paper concludes that integrating environmental forensics into environmental governance can substantially enhance evidence-based enforcement, improve regulatory transparency, reduce opportunities for corporate evasion, and strengthen the implementation of environmental law.
Keywords: Environmental Forensics; Corporate Accountability; Environmental Governance; Evidentiary Gap; Environmental Enforcement; Environmental Evidence; ESG Compliance; Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).
