Environment Impact Assessment- For ease of devastating environment
We are advancing towards a future that is hard to envision. At present, global emissions are reaching record levels, the past four years have been the four hottest on record, coral reefs in oceans are dying, ocean levels are climbing, and winter temperatures in the Arctic have risen by 3°C since 1990. Climate change is the critical issue of our time and it is the moment to do something to alleviate its consequences not to complicate!
While nations are drafting protocols and conventions to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the International forums, India is not an exception to this. We do aspire to be a leader in progressing the new global order: Sustainable development (i.e. capacity to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs). We indeed have launched a global partnership program “International Solar Alliance” for the promotion of solar energy and to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and other remarkable achievements in the recent past. Despite achieving all these pearls on the road to the huge goal of sustainable development. Why are we suddenly going off the path by diluting the prevailing guarding gear (EIA) that secures our environment from the hostile repercussions? Before going further let’s understand..
What is EIA?
Environmental Impact Assessment or EIA is a screening process its primary objective is to foresee the potential environmental problems that would arise out of a proposed project and to devise mitigation measures. Likewise monitors the execution of the proposed measures.
This technique encompasses several phases from screening to decision making. One among them which is going through much clamour now is the “public hearing” and several other recent reforms that attempt to promote the ease of doing business by disentangling the laws that secured the ecosystem.
What is Public Hearing?
This phase confirms the dissemination of information to the public and consultation after conducting an assessment. The disadvantaged individuals can access the summary and express their concerns to the state.
Why should we challenge the new draft?
What is the draft? The draft is a preliminary stage of making a bill, once it gets passed in both houses and receives the assent of the president. A bill becomes an act.
The new draft of the EIA 2020 bill, is a retrogressive deviation from the EIA 2006 notification that it seeks to replace. It is an attempt to disable environmental regulations that appear to favour the industries by disregarding environmental concerns.
In two ways the proposed draft hopes to take away the powers from the public with the acknowledgement of the people.
Firstly, by exempting several projects and decreasing the time frame for the public hearing.
A list of the selected projects in the new draft has been designated to be exempted from public participation. Like, Modernization or irrigation projects, all building constructions & area development projects, expansion or widening of national highways, all projects concerning national defence and security, plans involving other strategic considerations.
An extremely ambiguous term “involving other strategic considerations” leaves the ruling under the government’s discretion. It will also now be free from public consultation requirements. Would a power plant or Natural gas exploration project fall into that category? Possibly Yes!
Secondly, this proposal tries to diminish the rights of the previously deprived communities by legalizing projects that have already caused a great deal of harm and have been operating without approvals from the EIA by granting post-facto clearance.
What is Postfacto clearance?
Post-facto clearance is the most unjust feature of the draft, which authorizes a project that has come up without acquiring any approvals. It could carry out operation under the new provisions. With some minor fines for the violations, and find its sins blessed.
This is disastrous because we already have several projects that are operating without EIA clearances. An example is the LG Polymer Plant in Vishakhapatnam, where the styrene gas leak happened on May 7 — revealed then that the plant had been running for over two decades without clearances.
Also, Oil India Limited, a wholly-owned Government of India enterprise in eastern Assam a few kilometres away from protected forests, went up in flames this month causing severe damage to the livelihoods in the region rich with biodiversity.
Onus on Violators
The draft also tries to amend how the government will take grievances of such violations. It has to be reported either by a government authority or the violators themselves. There is no scope for any public claim about infringements. Instead, the reliance is on the violators to disclose, suo motu (themselves voluntarily), that they broke the law. Besides, it decreases the frequency of inspections from existing every six months to once a year.
Roadmap
The draft, on the whole, is a compilation of violations. The government should not consider environmental laws as an obstacle to the ease of doing business.
During the lockdown, the MoEF has been working swiftly to clear projects, even carrying out public hearings over video conference. Shortening of the processing time and bypassing the hurdles of bureaucratic intervention might benefit the industries, would help in the development of the economy at the expense of our ecosystem and human rights of the people.
The Minister for Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises being conferred to the same person, leaving no scope for the conflict of interest is itself a prelude for the misconception.
We need strong regulations to protect our limited resources, to ensure that they are available to the most impoverished who are sustaining their lives with them. Many of the most downtrodden communities of our society thrive by gaining bread from them. Any radical changes in EIA will have adverse impacts on these people and the ecology.
The policy maker’s belief itself creates a conundrum whether the Environment protection act is being amended for “ease of doing business” or “ease of devastating the environment”.
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