The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has recently announced amendments to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Rules, notably introducing several exemptions to environmental clearance rules. This is an update to the original EIA Notification issued in 2006 by the MoEFCC, which was designed to carefully scrutinize all vital information pertaining to a project’s potential adverse impact on the surrounding ecology. Further amendments were incorporated in 2016, 2020 and 2021.
Unraveling EIA Notification 2006
The EIA Notification 2006 primarily served to decentralize project clearances. Broadly speaking, it classified developmental projects into two categories: Category A and Category B. Category A includes national level appraisal projects, which are assessed by the Impact Assessment Agency (IAA) and the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC). On the other hand, Category B pertains to state level appraisal projects which seek clearance from the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC).
This amendment introduced four stages into the EIA cycle: Screening, Scoping, Public Hearing and Appraisal. While Category A projects require mandatory environmental clearance, Category B projects undergo the screening process and are further divided into B1 (requiring EIA) and B2 (not requiring EIA). Furthermore, projects dealing with mining, thermal power plants, river valley and infrastructure, among others, are mandated to acquire environmental clearance.
Understanding Exemptions Under The New Amendment
Certain strategic and defense-related projects such as highway constructions within 100 km from the Line of Control are exempted from acquiring environmental clearance pre-construction. This exemption also extends to controversial projects like Char Dham, which involves road widening in ecologically sensitive areas of Uttarakhand.
Moreover, thermal power plants with a capacity of up to 15 MW based on biomass or non-hazardous municipal solid waste, using at most 15% auxiliary fuels like coal or petroleum products, have also been exempted, provided the fuel mix is eco-friendly.
Additionally, fish handling ports and harbours, which possess less pollution potential and cater primarily to small fishermen, are also exempted from environmental clearance. The exemptions also extend to toll plazas requiring more width for installation of toll collection booths and certain airport expansion activities.
Decoding Environmental Impact Assessment
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), an EIA is a tool that aims to identify the environmental, social and economic impacts of a project ahead of the decision-making process. This is achieved via the prediction of potential environmental impacts at an early stage in project planning and design, proposing measures to reduce adverse impacts, shaping projects to resonate with the local environment and presenting these assessments to decision-makers.
The EIA process commences with the screening step, which assesses whether the proposed project requires an EIA and if so, the extent of assessment needed. This is followed by the scoping stage, where key issues and impacts that need further investigation are identified. Subsequently, impact analysis identifies and forecasts potential environmental and social impact of the project and evaluates the significance.
The mitigation stage of the EIA proposes actions to reduce and avoid potential adverse environmental consequences of development activities. This is followed by reporting, public hearing, reviewing of EIA and decision-making stages. Finally, post-monitoring ensures that the project’s impacts don’t exceed legal standards and that mitigation measures are implemented as outlined in the EIA report.