Rebooting Economy IV: Is govt using environmental laws to protect polluting industries?
The draft EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) of 2020 being pushed through by the central government seeks to undermine checks and balances on pollution of air, water, and soil and depletion of forests that impose heavy costs on the economy by spreading illness, deaths and loss of livelihoods of millions of people

- Jul 8, 2020,
- Updated Jul 8, 2020 8:27 PM IST
The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study has been an important tool of environmental governance in India since 1994. It provides a basic fact-sheet of costs and supposed benefits (not exactly a cost-benefit analysis) of projects like dams, mines and industries that have high potential to damage the environment and local communities.
In 1997, an important and mandatory component was added: pubic consultations before EIA could be finalised and presented for green clearances. The EIA of 1994 was replaced with the EIA of 2006, which specified a four-stage process of green approval: screening, scoping, public consultation and appraisal by expert committees.
Screening is to identify if a project needs an EIA study; scoping sets up the terms of reference (TOR) for EIA study; public consultation or hearing to invite objections and facilitate dialogue with local communities and experts before government approval is sought.
The EIA is issued under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 for the purpose of protecting and improving environment and preventing pollution.
Section 3 (1) of the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 Act reads: "Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Central government shall have the power to take all such measures as it deems necessary or expedient for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing controlling and abating environmental pollution."
In March 2020, even as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) put out a draft EIA of 2020 to replace the EIA of 2006.
The draft EIA of 2020 seeks to achieve the opposite of the very raison d'etre of the EIA - protection, and promotion of environment and local communities.
Instead of carrying out meaningful dialogue and debate, the MoEF&CC sought to rush the draft EIA of 2020 through during the pandemic lockdown.
Despite strong protests from experts, the window for filing objections was limited to June 30. The Delhi High Court intervened on the same day to extend the deadline to August 11, and later asked for the draft EIA of 2020 to be translated into all 22 languages listed in the Constitution (instead of just English and Hindi) and uploaded on the websites of all central and state environment ministries and pollution control boards for wider reach.
The rush to notify the new EIA is to speed up clearances to projects that impose heavy social and environmental costs on the economy.
Ironically, the EIA is an instrument that draws its power from Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 that aims at "protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing controlling and abating environmental pollution".
Economic historian Prof. Dirk Philipsen of Duke University wrote about what China found when it tried to calculate the social and environmental cost of polluting industries in 2004. He said a study was published in 2006 which found the cost "devastating".
In his 2015 book, 'The Little Big Number: How GDP Came to Rule the World and What to Do About It', Philipsen wrote that 20% of China's GDP was found directly based on depletion of resources and degradation of the environment and in several provinces, pollution-adjusted growth rates turned out to be "negative".
Here is about the depletion of forests in India.
According to a study by a Columbia University scholar, in six years between 2014 and 2020, forest land nearly equal to the size of Nagaland has already been approved for non-forest use or is pending approval.
During this period, 14,822 sq km of forest land has been diverted, while during the previous 39 years between 1975 and 2014, the diverted forest land stood at 21,632.5 sq km.
India's first National Forest Policy of 1988 aimed to raise forest cover from 23% to 33% (geographical area). In December 2019, the MoEF&CC released its report on forest cover stating that India was far behind its target at the current forest cover of 24.56%.
The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study has been an important tool of environmental governance in India since 1994. It provides a basic fact-sheet of costs and supposed benefits (not exactly a cost-benefit analysis) of projects like dams, mines and industries that have high potential to damage the environment and local communities.
In 1997, an important and mandatory component was added: pubic consultations before EIA could be finalised and presented for green clearances. The EIA of 1994 was replaced with the EIA of 2006, which specified a four-stage process of green approval: screening, scoping, public consultation and appraisal by expert committees.
Screening is to identify if a project needs an EIA study; scoping sets up the terms of reference (TOR) for EIA study; public consultation or hearing to invite objections and facilitate dialogue with local communities and experts before government approval is sought.
The EIA is issued under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 for the purpose of protecting and improving environment and preventing pollution.
Section 3 (1) of the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 Act reads: "Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Central government shall have the power to take all such measures as it deems necessary or expedient for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing controlling and abating environmental pollution."
In March 2020, even as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) put out a draft EIA of 2020 to replace the EIA of 2006.
The draft EIA of 2020 seeks to achieve the opposite of the very raison d'etre of the EIA - protection, and promotion of environment and local communities.
Instead of carrying out meaningful dialogue and debate, the MoEF&CC sought to rush the draft EIA of 2020 through during the pandemic lockdown.
Despite strong protests from experts, the window for filing objections was limited to June 30. The Delhi High Court intervened on the same day to extend the deadline to August 11, and later asked for the draft EIA of 2020 to be translated into all 22 languages listed in the Constitution (instead of just English and Hindi) and uploaded on the websites of all central and state environment ministries and pollution control boards for wider reach.
The rush to notify the new EIA is to speed up clearances to projects that impose heavy social and environmental costs on the economy.
Ironically, the EIA is an instrument that draws its power from Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 that aims at "protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing controlling and abating environmental pollution".
Economic historian Prof. Dirk Philipsen of Duke University wrote about what China found when it tried to calculate the social and environmental cost of polluting industries in 2004. He said a study was published in 2006 which found the cost "devastating".
In his 2015 book, 'The Little Big Number: How GDP Came to Rule the World and What to Do About It', Philipsen wrote that 20% of China's GDP was found directly based on depletion of resources and degradation of the environment and in several provinces, pollution-adjusted growth rates turned out to be "negative".
Here is about the depletion of forests in India.
According to a study by a Columbia University scholar, in six years between 2014 and 2020, forest land nearly equal to the size of Nagaland has already been approved for non-forest use or is pending approval.
During this period, 14,822 sq km of forest land has been diverted, while during the previous 39 years between 1975 and 2014, the diverted forest land stood at 21,632.5 sq km.
India's first National Forest Policy of 1988 aimed to raise forest cover from 23% to 33% (geographical area). In December 2019, the MoEF&CC released its report on forest cover stating that India was far behind its target at the current forest cover of 24.56%.