Green Activists Demand Withdrawal Of Proposed EIA Notification 2020; Says 'It Encourages Violations To Continue Undeterred'

Several groups of environmental activists have opposed the latest Environmental Impact Assessment draft notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change as going against India's stance to protect biodiversity, and against the agreements made in the Paris Climate Accord. Several experts, think tanks and environmental activists have sent objections and recommendations to the ministry, stating that the draft proposes to fundamentally alter India's current environmental rules and regulations, assessment and public participation and goes against the legal convention in environmental law.. The deadline for objection ends on 30th June 2020.According to the latest draft, the rules are relaxed to ease the working of ongoing projects and the other 191 projects which are set for approval in the near future.Key pointers from the current draft are :1. Permanently allows for regularisation of illegal industries who have not obtained Environment Clearances, by asking them to simply pay meagre fines. So, there will be no deterrence effect.2. The draft neglects public consultation for projects, including modernization of irrigation projects, buildings, construction, and area development projects, all projects concerned with national defense and security, all linear projects like pipelines in border areas, and all offshore projects.3. Draft exempts public hearing for more than 35 highly polluting chemical industries in notified industrial estates such as manufacturing of acids, paints, dyes, fertilisers, pesticides and pharmaceuticals, amongst others. This can cause havoc in rural areas that depend entirely on ground water and riverine water for domestic and agricultural use.4. Industries are now allowed to only give an annual environmental compliance report rather than half yearly reports. Past experiences show that industries have continued to provide data which are false and inaccurate. Seeking an annual report provides incentives to industries to further downplay any socio-environmental issues arising in their projects. This compliance needs to be made more stringent by seeking quarterly reports.5. If an industry is found with non-compliance of any environmental condition, no provision to suspend or cancel the Environment Clearance. The polluter can merely pay some fine and continue merrily.6. Current draft increases the validity of the environment clearances to 50 years for mining projects as against 30 years in the current law and 15 years for river valley projects as against 10 years, thus increasing the risk of irreversible environmental, social and health consequences on account of the project remaining unnoticed for long.7. Public hearings should be made mandatory as India's large coastal population of 60 million including fishermen and farmers are directly dependent on the coasts. Furthermore, it provides for a reduction of the time period from 30 days to 20 days for the public to submit their responses during a public hearing for any application seeking environmental clearance."The proposed draft EIA will encourage violations to continue undeterred, resulting in an exponential increase in amounts of GHG emissions and other air pollutants released by the industries. If it goes through, it will impact the livelihoods of farmers, fisherfolks and Advisasi communities adversely", said a citizens' coalition 'Build India Back Better', calling on the MoEFCC to withdraw the draft.Highlighting the concerns about the draft, the Build India Back Better Coalition said : "At a time of global climate and ecological emergency and associated socio economic crises that follow, India should be taking the lead in phasing out fossil fuels. However, the ministry has instead decided to relax norms on clearances and simultaneously the Union Government has initiated the 'Unleashing Coal' campaign, auctioning 50 more new coal blocks to private players in the heart of the country, rich in biodiversity reserves and home to indigenous communities, namely in the states of Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Not just forests, our oceans, wetlands and marine life stands at risk, with more than 20,000 species of marine fauna, thriving fishing communities and coastal cities on the waterfront. The EIA 2020 draft notifications, if passed, will open up our fragile coasts and its natural flood defenses to rising sea levels reducing it to a piece of land and resource to be exploited for industry, real estate and port development. A recent report from the Ministry of Earth Sciences pointed to impacts of climate change over the Indian region. The current draft lacks understanding of the adverse effects of activities like disturbance in eco-sensitive zones, extensive mining, capital dredging, impacting Adivasi and indigenous communities disproportionately. The Draft is a terrible response to the ongoing ecological crisis in the nation. India has just witnessed...

Green Activists Demand Withdrawal Of Proposed EIA Notification 2020; Says 'It Encourages Violations To Continue Undeterred'

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