Environmental Impact Assessmt Draft 2020

-Saniya Goyal & Vidhi Kumawat

By Time8 Webdesk

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) was issued under the environment protection act, 1986. This act was promulgated to mitigate the harm or damages caused by industrialists. According, to this act any enterprise or company either private or government has to take an Environmental Clearance Certificate from the concerned government ministry. EIA was first introduced in our country on 27 January 1994, by the UNION MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (MEF), Government of India. Lately which has been known as MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (MoEFCC).

Environmental impact assessment draft 2020 was introduced on 12 March 2020 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India. According to the contemporary scenario, this draft state that an Environmental Clearance Certificate will be granted even if the construction has started or it is in the running phase as the government does not want to halt the development plan or hurt the economy. The time for public consultation has undergone a drastic change as it has been curtailed from 30 days to 20 days. According to the EIA 2006, the Compliance Report is to be submitted every 6 months but now the limit has been extended to 1 year. If the government approves any plan ‘strategic’ then the public would not be able to file complaints about the enterprise which has caused damages. moreover, the public would not go against such enterprises as it would be considered revolting against the government. In addition to this, the EIA Draft 2020 is published in three languages viz, Hindi, English and Marathi. Most of the industries are set up in a vicinity where resources are abundant and are mostly rural areas. The residents of such areas are not educated and often they are acquainted with vernacular or local languages. The people in such areas would be the most affected by such policies and they will not be able to raise their voices as they are not acquainted with other languages. The government must publish the EIA Draft 2020 in 22 scheduled languages so that it can be easily understood by the different linguistic groups of India. Hence, by the EIA 2020 Draft, it can be inferred that the Indian government is more inclined towards the economy and industrialists.

It has emerged as a topic of intense debate and discussion amongst the opposition parties and the ruling party. Rahul Gandhi opposed the EIA 2020 Draft by commenting that EIA is a loot of the nation. While Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi together sought to ask for the withdrawal of EIA. Aditya Thackeray asked for the re-evaluation. Jairam Ramesh, member of parliament, Rajya Sabha commented ‘it will destroy India’s natural resources.’ On 11 August Prakash Javadekar, environment minister, said that nothing has been finalised.’

‘Prakriti Rakshati Rakshita’, this ancient Indic verse means ‘nature protects if she is protected.’ As per the UN report Trees Per Head in India is 28 which is extremely alarming. The government should keep this deplorable condition in mind and accordingly make policies. For instance, picturise what will be the consequences of this policy once it gets launched the number of Tress Per Head might decrease. To mitigate the adverse consequences the environment will bear, the government should make stringent provisions to maintain an equilibrium between the country’s economy and nature. Apparently, should reconsider the EIA Draft 2020.

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