The Green-Collar Matrix: An Empirical Analysis of the Tripartite Nexus among Environmental Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering in India's Real Estate Sector

Abstract

This paper introduces the Green-Collar Matrix as a conceptual and empirical tool for understanding the tripartite nexus through which environmental crimes, institutional corruption and money laundering reinforce one another within India’s construction and property markets. Drawing on a mixed-methods design that combines panel data analysis across 121 Indian districts (2010–2023), forensic analysis of six landmark legal proceedings, and content analysis of enforcement records from multiple central agencies, the study tests the proposition that these three phenomena are structurally interdependent rather than merely incidentally co-occurring. Fixed-effects panel regression finds that the inverse of the Corruption Perception Index score, urban forest cover loss and benami transaction incidence are the strongest predictors of a constructed Money Laundering Vulnerability Index, returning standardised coefficients of 0.61, 0.57 and 0.53 respectively, each significant at the 0.1% level. Rather than treating environmental crime as a peripheral externality of development, the results point toward its role as an active mechanism of illicit capital formation. The paper documents both statutory gaps notably the exclusion of forest diversion and wetland conversion from independent PMLA predicate status and operational shortcomings in the use of existing environmental predicate offences, and concludes with a targeted reform matrix addressing the legislative and institutional deficiencies that sustain the nexus.