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National Green Tribunal
2020 JUL   23

ENVIRONMENT IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) POLICY 2020

2020 JUL 14

Mains   > Environment & Ecology   >   National envi initiatives   >   Environment Impact Assessment

WHY IN NEWS

  • Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has proposed a draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020, to replace the EIA notification of 2006.
  • It aims to make the process of issuing environmental clearances more transparent and expedient through implementation of an online system

EVOLUTION

What is EIA?

UNEP defines Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) as a tool used to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a project prior to decision-making.

It is a statutory process under Environment (Protection) Act whereby people’s views are taken into consideration for granting final approval to any developmental project or activity.

  • A signatory to the Stockholm Declaration (1972) on Environment, India enacted laws to control water (1974) and air (1981) pollution soon after.
  • EIA was first introduced in India in 1978, with respect to river valley projects.
  • But it was only after the Bhopal gas leak disaster in 1984 that the country legislated an umbrella Act for Environmental Protection in 1986.
  • Under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, India notified its first Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) norms in 1994, setting in place a legal framework for regulating activities that access, utilise, and affect (pollute) natural resources.
  • EIA process is an outcome of the 1992 Rio Declaration, which says that environmental issues are best handled through the participation of all concerned citizens and that states must provide an opportunity to citizens to participate in decision-making processes.
  • The 1994 EIA notification was replaced with a modified draft in 2006.
  • EIA is now mandatory for more than 30 categories of projects, and these projects get Environmental Clearance (EC) only after the EIA requirements are fulfilled.
  • In 2020, the government redrafted it again to incorporate the amendments and relevant court orders issued since 2006.

 

THE NEED FOR EIA:

  • To lay down a flexible approach for public involvement in environment conservation efforts and to have a mechanism of follow up and feedback
  • To apply consistently to all project proposals with potential environmental impacts.
  • EIA provides a cost effective method to eliminate or minimize the adverse impact of developmental projects.
  • EIA enables the decision makers to analyse the effect of developmental activities on the environment well before the developmental project is implemented.

 

SALIENT FEATURES OF EIA POLICY, 2020:

  • Requirement of Prior Environment Clearance
    • All new projects or activities including expansion or modernization of project under Category ‘A’ require Prior Environment Clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change before start of any construction work/installation/excavation etc.
    • All projects under Category ‘B1’ require Prior Environment Clearance from the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA)
    • Projects under Category ‘B2’ are classified in to two:
      • (a) The projects that require Prior Environment Clearance from the SEIAA
      • (b)Some of them that are not required to be placed before Appraisal Committee and shall require Prior Environment Permission from SEIAA
  • Stages in EIA:
    • The Prior Environment Clearance process for Category ‘A’ or Category ‘B1’ will comprise of a maximum of six stages. The six stages are:
      • (1)Scoping: The project’s potential impacts, zone of impacts, mitigation possibilities and need for monitoring.
      • (2)Preparation of Draft EIA Report
      • (3)Public Consultation; The public consultation shall ordinarily have two components:
        • A public hearing at the site or in its close proximity and
        • Inviting responses in writing from other concerned persons having a plausible stake in the environmental aspects of the project;
      • (4)Preparation of Final EIA:
      • (5)Appraisal:
      • (6)Grant or Rejection of Prior Environment Clearance.

CONCERNS:

  • Government’s discretionary power to tag project as ‘strategic’:
    • While projects concerning national defence and security are naturally considered strategic, the government gets to decide on the “strategic” tag for other projects.
    • The 2020 draft says no information on “such projects shall be placed in the public domain”.
    • This opens a window for summary clearance for any project deemed strategic without having to explain why.
  • New draft exempts a long list of projects from public consultation:
    • For example, linear projects such as roads and pipelines in border areas will not require any public hearing. The ‘border area’ is defined as “area falling within 100 kilometres aerial distance from the Line of Actual Control with bordering countries of India.” That would cover much of the Northeast, the repository of the country’s richest biodiversity.
    • All inland waterways projects and expansion/widening of national highways will be exempt from prior clearance. These include roads that cut through forests and dredging of major rivers.
    • Draft also exempts most building construction projects of built-up area up to 1.5 lakh sq m
  • Provisions for post-facto project clearance:
    • Projects operating in violation of the Environment Act will now be able to apply for clearance
    • All a violator will need are two plans for remediation and resource augmentation
    • For late applications, a developer will have to pay penalty, but it is very minimal.
    • Post facto approval is the derogation of the fundamental principles of environmental jurisprudence and violation of the “precautionary principle,” which is a principle of environmental sustainability.
  • Abandoning the public trust doctrine:
    • Projects operating in violation of the Environment Act have to be reported either by a government authority or the developers themselves.
    • There is no scope for any public complaint about violations. Instead, the reliance is on the violators to disclose, suo motu, that they broke the law.
  • Compliance Report Issue
    • The 2006 notification required that the project proponent submit a report every six months, showing that they are carrying out their activities as per the terms on which permission has been given.
    • However, the new draft requires the promoter to submit a report only once every year.
    • During this period, certain irreversible environmental, social or health consequences of the project could go unnoticed because of the extended reporting time
  • Data from only one season can be used to create a baseline for projects:
    • Thus draft EIA notification does away with the need to carry out studies covering all seasons in a year
    • The end result of the EIA will mask the full environmental impact of a project.
    • For example: In summer, pollutants will be low because of low atmospheric pressure and vice-versa
  • Public Consultation Process:
    • The draft notification provides for a reduction of the time period from 30 days to 20 days for the public to submit their responses during a public hearing for any application seeking environmental clearance.
    • If adequate time is not given for the preparation of views, comments and suggestions to those who would be affected by the project, then such public hearings would not be meaningful.
    • Further, the reduction of time would particularly pose a problem in those areas where information is not easily accessible or areas in which people are not that well aware of the process itself.
  • EIA 2020 offers no remedy for the political and bureaucratic stronghold on the EIA process:
    • Reports on projects’ potential impact on the environment — the bedrock of the EIA process — are frequently shoddy and consultant agencies that prepare those reports for a fee are rarely held accountable.
    • Lack of administrative capacity to ensure compliance often renders long lists of clearance conditions meaningless.
    • Then there are periodic amendments exempting one category of industries or the other from scrutiny.
  • Other shortcomings:
    • Composition of expert committees and standards:
      • It is being found that the team formed for conducting EIA studies is lacking the expertise in various fields such as wild life, social science etc.
    • Lack of Credibility:
      • It is the responsibility of the project proponent to commission the preparation of the EIA for its project.
      • The EIA is actually funded by an agency or individual whose primary interest is to procure clearance for the project proposed.
    • Concern of project developers:
      • Developers complain that the EIA regime dampened the spirit of liberalisation, leading to red tape and rent-seeking.

WAY FORWARD

  • Empowering people:
    • The ministry, instead of reducing the time for public consultation, should focus on ensuring access to information as well as awareness about the public hearing and its impact upon the whole EIA process.
  • Revisit the provision of ‘ex post facto environmental clearances’
    • As the Supreme Court held, the “ex post facto environmental clearances” are contrary to Environment law.
    • They contrary to both the precautionary principle as well as the need for sustainable development.
    • Therefore such provisions under EIA notification need to be revisited
  • Need for centralized data bank
    • A centralized data bank need to be created, and there requires the dissemination of all information related to projects from notification to clearance to local communities and general public.
  • Wider applicability:
    • Exemption need to be very minimal
    • All those projects where there is likely to be a significant alternation of ecosystems need to go through the process of environmental clearance, without exception.
  • Quality:
    • The focus of EIA needs to shift from utilization and exploitation of natural resources to conservation of natural resources.
    • At present EIA reports are extremely weak when it comes to assessment of biological diversity of a project area and the consequent impacts on it. This gap needs to be plugged.
    • It is critical that the preparation of an EIA is completely independent of the project proponent.
  • Capacity building:
    • NGOs, civil society groups and local communities need to build their capacities to use the EIA notification towards better decision making on projects

CONCLUSION

  • An effective EIA policy must limit the government’s discretionary power while improving public engagement in safeguarding the environment.
  • EIA policy must be aligned to the purpose of the Environment Act, and it cannot be sacrificed at the altar of improving the ‘ease of doing business’.
  • With the EIA, we also need Social impact assessment to achieve sustainable development in true sense.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Q. Give an account of government efforts to curb air pollution in India. What is the advantage of having a robust Environmental Impact Assessment policy in tackling air pollution?