Ensure clarity on green nods

Government must rethink the move to bring in controversial clauses through the backdoor

When the government introduced the draft environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification two years ago, it triggered a storm, with protests by activists, environmental researchers, ecologists and conservationists, and eventually, the notification lapsed. But last week, this newspaper reported that the Union environment ministry used draft notifications, office memorandums, and orders to implement many of the controversial clauses in the draft EIA 2020, through the backdoor. This decision represents an erosion of the consultative process that is the bedrock of India’s environmental laws. The new clauses represented an eclectic bouquet of issues — exempting highway projects near borders from green clearances, expediting clearances for projects in areas with Left-wing extremism, extending licences of nuclear, mining, and hydropower projects — but they all have one thing in common: They were taken in the absence of a transparent consultative process and without the involvement of key stakeholders, including the communities that will be affected by the projects. As this newspaper has maintained, legitimising

clearances without consideration of a project’s ramifications on wildlife, environment, and communities can upset the delicate balance between development, ecology, and the people that is crucial to ensure a sustainable future. At a time when the climate crisis is having consequences on millions of Indians and stretching weather patterns to extremes, policymakers would do well to stop thinking that deliberative processes to assess the impact of a project are an impediment to development. There is no doubt that the country has a legacy of projects getting entangled in legalese and regulations, but the response to this shouldn’t be to junk all consultation. Instead, it should be to streamline these systems, bolster monitoring, and ensure transparency.

India’s tryst with green impact assessment is three decades old. Once the government decides on a major project, EIA focuses on key issues, measures their impact, proposes steps to reduce the impact, and prepares a final report. It is the involvement of all stakeholders, including members of underprivileged communities often most affected by a particular project, that bestows legitimacy to the process and ensures that built-in safeguards forestall exploitation of resources. Sequestering the process in opacity will hurt India’s quest for a sustainable future. The government must reconsider this course.