8 Amendments in EIA 1994

Sunil Mittal

1.  Introduction

1.1 Amendment on 10th April, 1997

1.2 Amendment on 27 January 2000 and 13 December 2000

1.3 Amended on 21 November 2001

1.4 Amendment on 13th June, 2002

1.5 Amendment on 28th February, 2003

1.6 Amendment on 7th May 2003

1.7 Amendment on 4th August 2003

1.8 Amendment on 22 September 2003

1.9 Amendment on 7th July, 2004

1.10    Amendment on 4th July 2005

2 .  Major differences between EIA Notifications of 1994 and 2006

1.  Introduction

The EIA mechanism was formally introduced in India in 1994 with a notification by Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India under Environment Protection Act 1986. Since then the EIA process has come a long way. As on now, the notification has become obsolete with the issue of new notification in 2006. The new notification was issued to re-engineer the 1994 notification to increase its base, to give EIA process more strength and make is more systematic. The EIA 1994 notification covered the projects like Nuclear Power and related projects, River Valley projects, major Irrigation projects, Ports, Harbours, Airports, Petroleum Refineries, Chemical Fertilizers, mines, industries, highways bridges, etc. for EIA studies to protect the environment. To strengthen the notification, remove anomalies, changes to keep with time etc., many changes were made to the 1994 notification. The EIA notification 1994 was amended 13 times in time span of 11 years till 2006. The first amendment in the notification came on 4th May 1994 which was very minor. The key amendments of 1994 notification are discussed as follows:

1.1 Amendment on 10th April, 1997: The amendment led to 2 things: i) made changes in the environmental clearance procedure for power plants ii) introduced the process of public hearing (EPH) in the environmental clearance. Details are discussed as follow:

• Through the notification dated 10th April 1997, (No. S.O. 319 E), the MoEF decentralized the responsibilities of conducting EIA only at Centre level and placed certain category of thermal plants EIA clearance with the State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs). The amendment took all Co-generation plants irrespective of the installed capacities, Captive Power Plants upto 250 MW and Utility Projects ((i) Coal based plants upto 500 MW using fluidized bed technology subject to the sensitive areas restrictions; (ii) Coal based Power Plants upto 250 MW using conventional technologies; (iii) Gas/Naphtha based plants upto 500 MW) under the ambit of SPCBs. The schedule-II laid down the procedure for seeking environment clearance of projects.
• The State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) were entrusted the responsibility to conduct public hearing in free and fair manner to get the views and concerns of the public affected due to proposed project. The procedure for public hearing was laid in schedule-IV of the amendment. It was made mandatory that the copies of Executive summary containing the salient features of the project both in English as well as local language be submitted to SPCBs, where the public can read these documents. The process was laid down for issuing Notice of Public Hearing. The main feature of the notice were:

i) The State Pollution Control Board shall cause a notice for environmental public hearing which shall be published ill at least two newspapers widely circulated in the region around the project, one of which shall be ill the vernacular language of the locality concerned. State Pollution Control Board shall mention the date, time and place of public hearing. Suggestions, views, comments and objections of the public shall be invited within thirty days from the date of publication of the notification.

ii)  All  persons  including  bonafide  residents,  environmental  groups  and  other located at tile project site/sites of displacement/sites likely to be affected can participate ill tile public hearing. They call also make oral/written suggestions to the SPCB.

The schedule also contained information regarding the composition of the public hearing panel.

1.2 Amendment on 27 January 2000 and 13 December 2000: The purview of EIA Notification was amended with the notification in January and December 2000 regarding non requirement of EIA in respect of:

a)      Any item reserved for Small Scale Industrial Sector with investment less than Rs. 1 crore.

b)      Defense related road construction projects in border areas.

1.3 Amended on 21 November 2001: Through amended in original EIA notification in November 2001, the following were introduced/ changed:

a)  Any item falling under entry No. 8 of Schedule-I (Bulk drugs and pharmaceuticals) covered by the notification G.S.R. 1037 (E) dated 5th December 1989. has been exempted from the purview of EIA Notification.

b)  The public hearing shall be completed within a period of 60 days from the date of receipt of documents complete in all respect as required under paragraph 1of said notification.

1.4 Amendment on 13th June, 2002: This amendment exempted some type of industries and projects from the ambit of environment clearance process to boost the progress of these projects.

a)  Environmental Impact Assessment report will not be required for pipeline projects and public hearing for pipeline and highway projects shall be conducted in each district through which the pipeline or highway passes through.

b)    EIA will not be required for:

Ø  any item falling under entry no. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 25, 27 of Schedule-I, if the investment is less than Rs 100 crores for new projects and less than Rs. 50 crores for expansion / modernization projects.

Ø  any item falling under entry no. 8 of Schedule-I, if that product is covered by the notification G.S.R. 1037(E) dated 5thDecember, 1989.

Ø  modernization projects in irrigation sector if additional command area is less than 10,000 hectares or project cost is less than Rs. 100 crores.

c)   The following substitutions were made in Schedule IV namely-:

Ø  an executive summary containing the salient features of the project both in English as well as the local language along with Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). However, for pipeline project, Environmental Impact Assessment report will not be required. But Environmental Management Plan including risk mitigation measures is required.

Ø  the words “Executive Summary”, with the words “Executive Summary and Environmental Impact Assessment report”.

1.5 Amendment on 28th February, 2003: The Central Government further made the following amendments in the EIA notification and subsequent amendments:

a)   The words, figures and letter “nos. 3, 18 and 20 of the Schedule-I”, the words, figures and letter “numbers 3 and 18 of the Schedule-I” shall be substituted.

b)  The purview of EIA Notification was increased with covering of Mining involving major minerals with lease area more than 5 ha in areas covered by the Aravalli under its ambit.

1.6 Amendment on 7th May 2003: The notification was amended to exempt the widening and strengthening of existing canals with certain caps/ alignments. The widening and strengthening of existing canals with land acquisition upto a maximum of 20 metres (on both sides put together) along the existing alignments provided such canals do not pass through ecologically sensitive areas.

1.7 Amendment on 4th August 2003: The distance criteria in respect of reserved forests and ecologically sensitive areas and interstate boundary were reduced from 25 and 50 kms respectively to 15 kms in both the cases.

1.8 Amendment on 22 September 2003: The notification made some changes in paragraph 2 and schedule I of the amended EIA notification.

a) The amendment exempted the offshore exploration activities, beyond 10 kilometres from the nearest habitated village boundary, goothans and ecologically sensitive areas such as, mangroves (with a minimum area of 1000 sq.m.), corals, coral reefs, national parks, marine parks, sanctuaries, reserve forests and breeding and spawning grounds of fish and other marine life from public hearing. The site clearance for green field airport, petrochemical complexes and refineries was made mandatory.

b) In Schedule 1, the item 4 “Petroleum Refineries including crude and product pipelines” was substituted with “Petroleum refineries including crude and product pipelines; isolated petroleum product storages.”

1.9 Amendment on 7th July, 2004: The amendment increased the activities under EIA by addition of entries in Schedule 1 from 30 to 32 and substitutions in Schedule 2. The amendment also provided explanations regarding the new entries in Schedule 1. The new entries were:

31.  New construction projects

32.  New industrial estates

The guidelines/explanation for the new entries made the environment clearance compulsory for following:

Ø  any construction project falling under entry 31 of Schedule-I including new townships, industrial townships, settlement colonies, commercial complexes, hotel complexes, hospitals and office complexes for 1,000 (one thousand) persons or below or discharging sewage of 50,000 (fifty thousand) litres per day or below or with an investment of Rs.50,00,00,000/- (Rupees fifty crores) or below.

Ø  any industrial estate falling under entry 32 of Schedule-I including industrial estates accommodating industrial units in an area of 50 hectares or below but excluding the industrial estates irrespective of area if their pollution potential is high.

Explanation of the above amendments:

(i)  New construction projects which were undertaken without obtaining the clearance required under this notification, and where construction work has not come up to the plinth level, shall require clearance under this notification with effect from the 7th day of July, 2004.

(ii)   In the case of new Industrial Estates which were undertaken without obtaining the clearance required under this notification and where the construction work has not commenced or the expenditure does not exceed 25% of the total sanctioned cost, shall require clearance under this notification with effect from the 7th day of July, 2004.

(iii)  Any project proponent intending to implement the proposed project under sub-paras (g) and (h) in a phased manner or in modules, shall be required to submit the details of the entire project covering all phases or modules for appraisal under this notification.

 1.10 Amendment on 4th July 2005: The amendment provided some relaxation for projects relating to expansion or modernization of activities as listed against items 1, 2, 3, 19 and 20 in schedule-I of this notification taken up after 27th January, 1994.

a) In paragraph 1, the amendment made provision that the above projects could be taken up without prior environmental clearance on some conditions. The Central Government in the Ministry of Environment and Forests may, on case to case basis, in public interest, relax the requirement of obtaining prior environmental clearance and may, after satisfying itself, grant temporary working permission on receipt of application in the prescribed format for a period not exceeding two years, during which the proponent shall obtain the requisite environmental clearance as per the procedure laid down in the notification. The grant of temporary working permission would not necessarily imply that the environmental clearance would be granted for the said project.

b)  In paragraph 2, in sub-para III, after clause (c), the following provision shall be added at the end, namely: “provided that for projects relating to expansion or modernization of activities listed against items 1, 2, 3, 19 and 20 in schedule-I, in respect of which temporary working permission has been granted, in public interest, such projects would be permitted to continue to operate during the validity period of the temporary working permission. Such temporary working permission shall automatically cease from the date of grant or rejection of environment clearance or at the expiry of two years whichever is earlier”.

After 2005, there was a wide spread opinion that the current EIA notification and amendment made are not able to address environmental concerns. The EIA process in India was a formality rather than a strict legislation to protect the environmental concerns of the Govt. of India. This paved the way for new EIA notification in September 2006. The MoEF re-engineered the EIA process with significant modifications.

2. Major differences between EIA Notifications of 1994 and 2006

The new EIA notification was an attempt to decentralize power of Centre to State Governments. Some of the key differences in the Notification 2006 and 1994 are as follow:

1.       Revised Schedule based on potential impacts instead of investment criteria.

2.       Revised Categorization of projects into category A and B (B1 & B2 given in annexure)

3.       Division of assessing bodies as per Categories:

a.       Category A exclusively at Central level

b.      Category B1 and B2 at State Level (with exceptions).

4.       Check-list information in Form-1/Form-1-A.

5.       No “no Objection Certificate” for Environmental Clearance

6.       Constitution of

a.       State Environment Appraisal Committees at the State level (SEAC)

b.      State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA)

7.         Constitution of DEA and DEIAC for minor mining projects

8.       Guidelines for the Environmental consultants for EIA project

9.       Issue of term of reference (TOR) to streamline the process