What do you mean by 'hazardous substance' under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986? Examine the status of electricity as a hazardous substance.

The term Hazardous Substance under Section 2(e) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 means any substance or preparation which, by reason of its chemical or physico-chemical properties or handling is liable to cause harm to human beings, other living creatures, micro-organism, property or the environment. In the case of UP Electricity Board and Another v. District Magistrate, Dehradun and Others (AIR 1998 All LJ 1) Allahabad High Court observed that Electricity is hazardous substance covered by definition under section 2(d) of the Act. Electricity is the flow of free electrons in a particular direction at the particular moment. The flow can be any wire or even an atmosphere like lightening or in body or in other body. The electron is very small and it has been discovered by the scientist that an electron is a pins about an excess and it has got organic field. The electron is thus a material article and electricity is the flow of all these material particular in particular direction. The flow consequently is the flow of matter having physico chemical properties like when passed through water, it separate the hydrogen form the Oxygen atoms (electrolysis). Thus electricity is a substance having physico chemical process and also hazardous. Accordingly it is hazardous substance covered by definition under the Act.