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Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is one of the tools available with the planners to achieve the goal of harmonising development activities with the environmental concerns.
EIA integrates the environmental concerns in the developmental activities right at the time of initiating for
preparing the feasibility report. In doing so it can enable the integration of environmental concerns and mitigation measures in project development. EIA can often prevent future liabilities or expensive alterations in project design.
The objective of EIA is to foresee the potential environmental problems that would arise out of a proposed development and address them in the project’s planning and design stage. EIA/ Environment Management Plan (EMP) should assist planners and government authorities in the decision making process by identifying the key impacts/ issues and formulating the mitigation measures.
EIA is a planning tool which is accepted as an integral component of sound decision-making.
Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoE&F) has taken several policy initiatives and enacted environmental and pollution control legislations to prevent indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources and to promote integration of environmental concerns in developmental projects.
One such initiative is the Notification on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of developmental projects 1994 under the provisions of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.
♤ The environmental impact assessment in India was started in 1976-77 when the Planning Commission asked the then Department of Science and Technology to examine the river-valley projects from environmental angle. This was subsequently extended to cover those projects, which required approval of the Public Investment Board. These were administrative decisions, and lacked the legislative support. The Government of India enacted the Environment (Protection) Act on 1986. To achieve the objectives of the Act, one of the decisions that were taken is to make environmental impact assessment statutory.
Besides EIA, the Government of India under Environment (Protection) Act 1986 issued a number of other notifications, which are related to environmental impact assessment. These are limited to specific geographical areas. They are
♤ Prohibiting location of industries except those related to Tourism in a belt of 1 km from high tide mark from the Revdanda Creek up to Devgarh Point (near Shrivardhan) as well as in 1 km belt along the banks of Rajpuri Creek in Murud Janjira area in the Raigarh district of Maharashtra (1989)
♤ Restricting location of industries, mining operations and regulating other activities in Doon Valley (1989)
♤ Regulating activities in the coastal stretches of the country by classifying them as coastal regulation zone and prohibiting certain activities (1991)
♤ Restricting location of industries and regulating other activities in Dahanu Taluka in Maharashtra (1991)
♤ Restricting certain activities in specified areas of Aravalli Range in the Gurgaon district of Haryana and Alwar district of Rajasthan (1992)
♤ Regulating industrial and other activities, which could lead to pollution and congestion in an area north west of Numaligarh in Assam (1996)
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Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP), Sikkim has been inscribed as India’s first “Mixed World Heritage Site” on UNESCO World Heritage List, by fulfilling the nomination criteria under both natural and cultural heritage.