Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification Draft 2020: What is it, its history, amendments and key issues

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has issued a Draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2020. This draft will replace EIA Notification, 2006. The Ministry invited public feedback on the new draft notification. 

Earlier, the deadline for submitting the feedback was June 30 which has now been extended by the Delhi High Court till August 11, after the government received several emails seeking an extension to the mandatory 60 days time for public feedback from the earlier deadline.  

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EIA notification draft 2020

Several environmentalists argue that the new EIA notification draft 2020 is a step towards the regressive departure from the 2006 notification, while the others argue that the re-drafted notification doesn't decrease political and bureaucratic hold over the EIA process. 

1- The redrafted notification categorises all the projects, the bulk production activities of drugs and intermediates for several ailments from category 'A' to 'B2'. All the projects listed in the schedule are divided into three categories based on the social and environmental impacts-- Category A, Category B1 and Category B2. 

2- The draft further states that the project(s) can receive clearance post-facto. This means that the clearance can be provided to the developments or activities that violate the Environment (Projection) Act of 1986. However, the Apex Court of India, in its April 1 order held that the ex-post-facto environmental clearances are against the law. 

3- Several projects are exempted from the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). These include the strategic projects and defence projects by the Government of India-- National highways and inland waterways projects. As per the new notification, this kind of projects will be placed in the public domain. 

4- The construction projects up to 1,50,000 sq m have been exempted under the new draft notification. The projects can now get the environment clearance after scrutiny by state-level expert appraisal committee. Earlier, the construction projects up to 20,000 sq m were exempted. 

What is EIA?

EIA or Environment Impact Assessment is a process to study, analyze and predict the effect of a proposed development project, either industrial or infrastructural, on the environment.

What is the aim of EIA?

The main aim of EIA is to prevent any such development(s) which would affect the environment in any possible way.

History of EIA

In the year 1984, after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the Government of India formulated the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, to protect the environment. 

In the year 1994, under this Act, first EIA notification was drafted, to set a legal framework which would regulate activities that access, utilise, and affect (pollute) natural resources. Since then, every development project in India requires environmental clearance. However, the 1994 norms were modified in the year 2006 through a draft notification. In 2020, the government redrafted the EIA notification to add the amendments and relevant court orders issued since 2006 to make the process more transparent and expedient. 

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