Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006 is the main rulebook that decides whether a big project in India can be built. It says that certain projects, like mines, power plants, dams, highways, factories and large buildings, must get an environmental clearance (EC) before any work starts. To get this clearance, the project's likely harm to air, water, land, forests and local people must be studied first. Experts then check the study and the government says yes, yes-with-conditions, or no.

Why does India need it?

Imagine a family building a house without checking whether the land floods every monsoon. Once the walls are up, fixing the mistake is very costly. The same is true for a cement plant next to a river or a mine inside a forest. EIA makes the country look before it leaps. It finds problems early, suggests ways to reduce harm, and lets affected people speak before damage is done. This idea of acting early, before harm happens, is called the precautionary principle.

Where did it come from?

India passed the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 after the Bhopal gas tragedy of December 1984. Section 3 of this Act gives the Central Government the power to take all steps needed to protect the environment. Using this power and Rule 5 of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, the government issued the first EIA Notification on 27 January 1994.

It made EIA compulsory for 29 listed types of projects. Public hearings were added in 1997. On 14 September 2006, the 1994 notification was replaced by the EIA Notification, 2006, which is still in force today, with many amendments.

Which projects need clearance, and from whom?

The 2006 Notification sorts projects by size and likely harm:

• Category A: Big projects with large impact. They are cleared by the Central Government (MoEFCC), after checking by a central Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC).
• Category B: Smaller projects. They are cleared by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), after checking by a State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC).
• Category B is split again into B1 (needs a full EIA report and a public hearing) and B2 (needs neither).

The list of project types and their size limits is given in the Schedule to the notification. For example, airports are listed at item 7(a) of the Schedule as Category A, so a new airport needs clearance from the Centre.

How does the process work, step by step?

There are four stages:

1. Screening: Only for Category B projects. The SEAC decides whether the project is B1 or B2.
2. Scoping: The expert committee writes the Terms of Reference (ToR). This is a list of the exact questions the EIA study must answer, like "How much groundwater will the plant use?"
3. Public consultation: The State Pollution Control Board holds a public hearing near the project site. Local people can raise their concerns. Written comments are also collected from others who have a stake. The hearing must be completed within 45 days of the request. Since 1997, a 30-day notice is given before the hearing.
4. Appraisal: The EAC or SEAC studies the final EIA report and the public's views. It must finish within 60 days. The authority must then give its decision within 105 days of receiving the final EIA report.

All Category A and B1 projects must go through public consultation. Some projects, like building expansions inside industrial estates, are exempt from it.

After clearance: how long is it valid, and who checks?

The clearance is not forever. After an amendment of 12 April 2022 (S.O. 1807(E)), the validity is:

• 10 years for most projects (it was 7 years before)
• 13 years for river valley projects
• Up to 50 years for mining projects, with a check of the EIA every 5 years after the first 30
• 15 years for nuclear projects

Once a project runs, the company must send half-yearly compliance reports showing it is following the conditions. Since 10 August 2018, all applications go online through the PARIVESH portal. PARIVESH is a single-window site for environment, forest, wildlife and coastal (CRZ) clearances.

Commonly confused concepts

• Environmental clearance vs Forest clearance: EC comes under the EIA Notification and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. Forest clearance is needed separately when forest land is used for non-forest work. It comes under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 (earlier called the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980). A project may need both.
• Environmental clearance vs Consent to Establish/Operate: EC is a one-time approval of the project plan. Consent to Establish (CTE) and Consent to Operate (CTO) are given by the State Pollution Control Board under the Water Act, 1974 and the Air Act, 1981. They control day-to-day pollution.
• EAC vs SEIAA: The EAC (central) and SEAC (state) are expert committees that recommend. The MoEFCC and SEIAA are the authorities that decide.
• EIA vs SEA: EIA studies one project. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) studies a whole policy, plan or programme. India does not have a law for SEA.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Weak reports: EIA reports are paid for by the project company. Critics say this creates a conflict of interest, and some reports have been found copied or incomplete.
• Public hearings: Hearings are sometimes held far from affected villages, in English only, or with short notice. The Draft EIA Notification, 2020 (released 23 March 2020) proposed cutting the notice period from 30 to 20 days, which drew wide criticism. It has not been made final.
• Changes by memos: Many changes to the 2006 rules have been made through office memorandums (internal orders) rather than formal amendments. Courts have questioned this.
• No cumulative impact study: Each project is judged alone. Ten small plants in one river basin may together cause big harm that no single EIA notices.
• Poor monitoring: Regional offices have too few staff to check whether clearance conditions are being followed.
• Way forward: Experts suggest an independent body to prepare or accredit EIA reports, stronger and more local public hearings, cumulative and strategic assessment, and better monitoring with satellite data.

Concepts to Know

• Environmental clearance (EC): Written permission from the government saying a project may go ahead, with conditions, after its harm to nature has been studied.
• Precautionary principle: The rule that if an activity may cause serious harm to nature, you should prevent it even before you have full scientific proof.
• Notification: A formal government order published in the official Gazette. It has the force of law when made under an Act.
• Office memorandum (OM): An internal order of a ministry that explains or applies rules. It is weaker than a notification and cannot change the law.
• Terms of Reference (ToR): The checklist of exact questions a study must answer.