In India the newspapers are full of stories about corruption. Everybody talks about it but nobody knows how to stop it.

Anil Agarwal, an environmental activist from India, is interested in corruption and why it happens.

In this often witty film he explores some of the ways corruption is systematically destroying India's environment and making it a hell on earth for those living in it.

Corruption and the environment: the method behind the madness

In a country covering 3.2 million square kilometres and home to over 1000 million people, India's political administration is a bureaucratic nightmare.

Under its mountains of files, forests disappear, rivers go missing and corrupt politicians and businessmen make easy money without anyone ever noticing.

Nature is the biggest property of the state and by plundering its assets, or by creatively 'managing' environmental policies, India's environment offers a wealth of money-making opportunities.

Flood control (or how to make the same embankments again and again)

Along the Kosi River in Bihar, eastern India, are miles upon miles of embankments which have straightened the course of this great river.

Between embankments, old and new, floods have become more violent, more devastating.

In the last 34 years, 193 million dollars have been spent to make and maintain 8500 kilometres of embankments to stop flooding. Yet the flood-prone area has gone up by 156%. If embankments are a bad idea, why make them year after year?

Corruption.

Sandalwood smuggling (or how forests disappear under bureaucracy)

Sandalwood smuggling, for use in carvings and sandalwood oil, is a daily drama in India.

Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are India's sandalwood states. If a sandalwood tree sprouts in your backyard, by law it's the state's property. If the owner declares the tree it can take a year for him to receive his share from the sale of the wood. If he sells it to a smuggler, he will get his money within 2-3 months. India's rigid laws force people to choose unregulated smuggling.

Everyday, a little more of the fragrance vanishes. The sandalwood tree is being smuggled out of existence.

The Rio Tax (or how to line your pocket after the 1992 Rio Earth summit)

In the Rajaji National Park in the Himalayan foothills, the Gujjars, a nomadic community of buffalo herders, make their summer home.

Gujjars have roamed this forest for centuries. But now it's a National Park. After 1992 they have to pay a 'Rio' afforestation tax - roughly double what they used to pay. But government officials don't always spend as much as the money they collect...

And this is only one-half of a two-fold scam. First they make money cutting down the forest. Then they make money through regeneration taxes.

The Crusader (or how to annoy corrupt officials with devotional songs)

Meet Anna Hazare, a social reformer for the last 20 years. He loves to fight corrupt politicians and officials. His anti-corruption campaign started when he noticed that nearly all the money towards an environmental regeneration programme for his village was being siphoned off at source.

Now Anna Hazare and his followers sing devotional songs outside the homes of corrupt officials as a means of publicly naming and shaming them.

But Anna Hazare's real campaign is to make anti-corruption the responsibility of the masses - by allowing voters the 'right to recall' elected politicians from office if they've been proved guilty of corruption.

People participation: will it work?

Anil Agarwal thinks the problem lies much deeper. If there is no respect for governmental law then neither the polluter, nor the destroyer, nor the protector will respect the law. Can new laws really save India's environment?