The Environmental Impact Assessment Notification 2006

In one line

Before a large project is built somebody has to study what it will do, publish it, hear the people who live there, and get a written clearance.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006, made under section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, read with rule 5 of the Rules, requires prior environmental clearance for the projects and activities in its Schedule, which are divided into Category A, appraised by the Ministry through an Expert Appraisal Committee, and Category B, appraised by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority through a State Expert Appraisal Committee; and the process has four stages: screening, scoping, public consultation and appraisal.

Why it matters in this module

Because it is the instrument through which every land-use decision in this paper is actually examined.

A mine needs it, and since Deepak Kumar v. State of Haryana, AIR 2012 SC 1386, so does a minor mineral quarry of any size. A township, a highway, a port, a thermal or nuclear power station, a cement plant and a river valley project all need it. And Common Cause v. Union of India, (2017) 9 SCC 499, held that ore extracted contrary to the Environmental Impact Assessment Notifications is illegally mined, so that its whole price is recoverable under section 21(5) of the MMDR Act.

The four stages

Stage 1, screening. For a Category B project only, the State authority decides whether it requires a full impact assessment. A project that does is B1; one that does not is B2 and goes straight to appraisal. The B1 and B2 distinction is where most of the argument is, because a B2 finding removes the public hearing.

Stage 2, scoping. The Expert Appraisal Committee determines the terms of reference on which the impact assessment report is to be prepared, addressing the relevant environmental concerns of the particular project. Scoping decides what the study will look at, and therefore what it can find.

Stage 3, public consultation. It has two components: a public hearing at the site or in its close proximity, conducted by the State Pollution Control Board in the district or districts affected; and written responses invited from other concerned persons having a plausible stake. The draft impact assessment report and a summary in the local language are made available in advance, and the proceedings are recorded and forwarded.

Certain categories are exempted from the public consultation, and the exemptions have been the subject of most of the litigation about the notification, because an exemption removes the only stage at which the people affected are heard.