EIA: Things you must know about EIA. Click here to know the complete details about EIA
The draft EIA information requires more extensive consultation and progressive changes. The Union Ministry of Environment has been in the spotlight on more than one moment throughout the pandemic, as it served to push through retrograde environmental decisions in an atmosphere of general paralysis.
In April, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar adopted a virtual conference to ensure that the National Board for Wildlife’s Standing Committee stamped its consent on several projects, with serious implications for conservation.
He now wants to quickly make a significant change to the method of project approvals, by introducing a new Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification. Now in the draft, it attempts to replace the current EIA notification of 2006.
The proposed provisions show that the Ministry has gone to excellent lengths to diminish or even eliminate public participation, and by extension independent expert opinion, from the process of allowing environmental clearances; public reporting of violations may also not be taken notice of.
While there can be no discussion about the consequence of development projects, it has resorted to inconsistency in classifying activity for exemptions. Section 26 presents a list of projects that would not attract environmental clearance or permission, including coal mining and seismic surveys for oil, methane, and shale gas on some lands.
Section 14 presents an exception for these and some other projects from the public discussion, also restricting the range of public engagement to the districts concerned, in the case of national parks and sanctuaries where pipeline infrastructure will pass.
Roads and highways get liberal permissions. Further, it retains the clause that if a public agency or authority recognizes the local circumstances not favorable to participation by citizens, the public discussion need not include a public hearing.
Despite the far-reaching nature of its intended actions, the Centre has presented unseemly haste to get them in place and Mr. Javadekar has not supported reliability by trying to shut down public responses to the draft early.
It took a Delhi High Court order to prolong the deadline to August 11. The exercise has been moreover muddied by the mysterious blocking of some activist websites asking for the EIA proposal to be abandoned and asking a new method towards preserving natural resources for future generations.
The Centre’s efforts at weakening checks and balances are not new. A study of coal mining clearances confirms that 4,302 hectares of forest were diverted during 2014-18, supporting extraction over conservation.
COVID-19 has effectively demonstrated the significance of nature for the well-being of lost forests and captured wildlife bringing virus reservoirs closer to humans and foul air ruining their health. While there might be a case for some changes, much of the proposed EIA system can only make things more serious, and should not be pushed through.
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