Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is a method to evaluate environmental, social, and economic impacts before any developmental project or expansion of any developmental project. It was first introduced in the USA (1970) and later came to India (1976) to examine the river-valley projects from an environmental perspective.
Subsequently, on 27th January 1994, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (now called Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, MoEFCC) (hereinafter ‘the Ministry’), GoI, under the Environmental (Protection) Act 1986, enacted an Environment Impact Assessment notification making Environmental Clearance (EC) mandatory for expansion or modernization of any activity or for setting up new projects listed in the notification.
EIA 1994 is then followed by various amendments and later in 2006, EIA notification 2006 was notified and later amended more than 50 times (Parivesh, 2023) which is currently implemented in all the states of India. Further changes that have been made in EIA rules will be discussed below.
What has changed?
Although various amendments have been made since 2006, on the 23rd of March, 2020 (during the COVID-19 lockdown), the Ministry proposed some changes to Environment Impact Assessment rules 2006, known as EIA Bill, 2020 (hereinafter ‘EIA 2020’). This was intended to replace the existing Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006.
The draft was valid till April 2022 which otherwise is a result of the changes that were made in Environmental Protection Rules relating to the validity of all notifications thereunder (from around 1.5 years to two years from the date of publication in the gazette). It was then further extended till October 11, 2022, because the ministry has excluded the pandemic period from the validity period. Conversely, this new amendment was criticized by many environmental experts, civil societies, and the wider public in view for attempting to legalize large-scale environmental violations (Nandi, 2020).
Analysis of Environment Assessment Bill 2020
The Environment Impact Assessment Bill 2020 includes many provisions that are already in EIA 2006 and its underlying amendments. It has also made some essential changes as compared to the previous notification. After the ministry released EIA 2020, public objections or suggestions were made available for two months.
However, in light of many circumstances, the period was extended to August 2020 (Vikrant, 2020). In contrast to acclamation from the changes, many criticisms were thrown. In the first scenario, the Ministry received nearly 1.7 million comments by the deadline for the public comments draft. Also, the publication in just two languages (English and Hindi) resulted in judicial scrutiny.
Lack of Public Consultation
There are several glitches concerning the content of this bill. For instance, the involvement of the public during the consultation which forms a core aspect of EIA was diluted by reducing the notice period for public hearings from 30 days to 20 days.
This leaves a huge opportunity for going forward in many developmental projects within a short period but it leaves little room for participation by those who are not alert of the technical details and those who have no means to access it. EIA 2006 seeks to uphold the ‘precautionary principle’ of environmental governance but the bill has provided provisions to exempt expansion and modernization projects from public consultation.
The Dilution of Environmental Clearances
Supposedly, Environmental Clearances are made to be given for an assured amount of time which however, got diluted by the 2020 Bill through the extension of the validity of environmental clearances without allowing for changed circumstances during the construction period. Some projects such as larger biomass-based power plants or municipal-waste-based power plants were completely exempted from environmental clearances. Earlier, the limit was up to 15 MW versus 25 MW as of the new bill.
Also, all highway projects within 100 km of the line of control (LOC) or international borders were to be exempted from clearances. Other exemptions include Ports that exclusively deal in fish handling, and cater to small fishermen, toll plazas requiring width for the installation of toll collection booths, and expansion activities in existing airports without an increase in the airport’s existing area.
This bill has also provided provisions for legalizing Post-Facto-project clearance in which projects that have started without proper Environment Impact Assessment will be pardoned through an appraisal committee which undoes the notion of assessment before the advancement of a project as provided by EIA 2006 notification (Mint, 2020).
Reduced Monitoring
Mandatory monitoring and scrutinizing through submission of reports by higher authorities gets reduced from once every six months to once every year. This would significantly reduce the quality of monitoring projects for compliance with environmental norms.
Additionally, the bill provides provisions that strengthen the government’s power. For instance, the government has the power to declare ‘economically sensitive areas’ without a public hearing as well as give any project a ‘strategic tag’. This could result in misuse of power to avoid EIA. As per the bill, only a representative from the government or a project proponent can file for the violations of provisions included in the Act but the citizens have no such power.
The 2020 bill has also made it less reliable as the baseline data that needs to cover all the seasons was made unnecessary. It has also provided provisions to make offshore and onshore exploration for gas and oil “B2 category” projects. Additionally, it mandates that B2 projects only seek environmental approval online and not in a public hearing. This list includes initiatives including inland waterways, ropeways in ecologically vulnerable places, commercial water aerodromes, and heliports that might perpetually transform the terrain.
Condition of the Environment Assessment Bill in 2023
EIA Bill 2020 remains a draft as of March 2023 but it is still uncertain whether the contentious rules in the draft could be slipped in through office memorandums which have already happened since 2006, post facto clearances per se. Just recently, off-river plants were exempted from having to conduct an environmental impact assessment. That being said, the number of projects that are constructed after Environment Impact Assessment approval has failed to execute under compliance (Manju et al., 2020). It is well definite to put a hold on EIA clearances for new or expanding projects until the volume of impacts brought on by existing projects is managed and minimized by efficient legal and legislative procedures.
Conclusion
The evolution of Environment Impact Assessment was gentle in its earlier phase but it has later transformed into a problematic practice that has made the question its existence. It has provided an imbalance between ease of development and environmental sustainability and has more weight on the ease of doing business.
The essence of democracy in India has also shown at times when people get united and shared a sheer interest in the protection of the nation’s ecosystem though rejection, objections, and protests against unfriendly bills that would cause more harm than benefit from. Furthermore, the core provisions of EIA that were established in line to protect the environment and allow development need to be maintained and safeguarded. If anything, the new provisions never intend to safeguard our environment but intend to go with hasty development deprived of considering the rights of Indian citizens to a cleaner and sustainable environment.
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Written by: Khumukcham Shynyan