Draft EIA Notification 2020: The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has redrafted Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification to incorporate the amendments and relevant court orders issued since 2006 and to make the EIA "process more transparent and expedient."

To understand in depth the recent amendments made in the EIA Notification and the grievances put forward by environmentalists, it important to unfold the pages of the past, and understand each new brick laid since then. Here is a detailed run-through on the evolution of Environment Impact Assessment Notification since 1990's, changes introduced in new EIA 2020 draft and issues regarding it.

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What is Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)?

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a process that assesses of studying, analyzing and predicting the effect of a proposed industrial/infrastructural project on the environment. It prevents the approval and initiation of any proposed activity/project without proper oversight or taking adverse consequences into account.

The main objective of EIA is to identify and evaluate environmental, social and economic impacts of projects. It predicts environmental consequences of projects and ensures that the proposed projects are environmentally sound.

History of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)

Soon after the Bhopal gas leak disaster in 1984, India legislated the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 under which, it notified its first EIA Notification in 1994, setting in place a legal framework for regulating activities that access, utilize, and affect natural resources. This set of norms was amended in 2006, which is valid up till now.

Earlier this year, the government of India redrafted the EIA notification in order to add the amendments and relevant court orders issued since 2006.

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Key Amendments & Issues Regarding EIA Notification Draft 2020

Reported in several publications, the environmental activists argue that the 2020 draft instead of moving towards the improvement, is rather a regressive departure from the 2006 notification.

Some have expressed their dissatisfaction saying that the 2020 draft offers no solution for the political and bureaucratic stronghold on the EIA process. All projects concerning national defence and security or involving other strategic considerations, as determined by the Central Government, shall require prior-EC or prior-EP, as the case may be, from the Ministry without any change in the category of the project. Further, no information relating to such projects shall be placed in public domain.

The EIA Notification Draft 2020 has proposed major changes in Categorization of projects and activities. As per the notification, all the projects, listed in the schedule, are divided into three categories namely,
Category ‘A’, Category ‘B1’, and Category ‘B2’ based on the potential social and environmental impacts and spatial extent of these impacts. Activists have raised concerns over the re-categorization of all the projects and activities related drug production from ‘A’ category to ‘B2’ category.

Few have also raised their voice against granting post-facto clearances to Industries and leaving aside them with fine alone in case of any violations. For several projects, the whole process of EIA fails to meet the standards of basic environmental protections. However, in an order on April 1, the Supreme Court held that "ex post facto environmental clearances" are contrary to law.