Prakash Kamat
Panaji, June 27-The Goa Foundation,Goa-based environmental NGO requests a favour. Please read this post in its entirely!
The Government of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF&CC) is attempting to force a new Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA)notification on the country. You need to get involved.
The process of granting an “environment clearance” appears innocent: before the project can start construction, the Ministry of Environment is required to be aware of negative impacts the new proposed activity may cause to nature and people. Hence all new projects – and existing projects that want to expand – have to submit to the EIA process.
The Ministry approved the first EIA notification in January 1994. It was then a mere 11 pages, but tight and fit as a fiddle, crystal clear to all.
In 2006, the Ministry replaced the 1994 notification with a new notification of 55 pages (EIA 2006). The EC process now became a murky game of words and pages. A gaggle of EIA consultants churned out spiral bound cut and paste jobs for which they were paid handsome fees. Most EIAs contained lies. All EIAs, paid for in cash, naturally supported the project, majority claiming the new project would do “marginal” damage to the environment. Any damage could be mitigated, etc., and so on. Expert Appraisal Committees (EAC), manned by fuddy duddies, willingly swallowed all the data in the EIA reports as gospel truth. As a result, each and every project was simply approved, and granted an “environment clearance”.
With the certificate in hand, two things became possible for the project proponent:
a) No further need of anxiety whether one followed the conditions imposed in the EC or not, since there was no post-EC monitoring. The EC became a certificate for legitimized pollution.
b) The EC became a tool to legitimize takeover of land from village communities, farmers, tribals and others. For the EACs the issue of “environment clearance” was reduced to pollution load. For people in whose locality the project was approved, what was “cleared” was the right of the developer to takeover their lands, the natural environment in which they lived free, without encumbrances and fences, and their earlier unchallenged opportunities for livelihood.
Today, true to its colours, the Ministry of Environment has declared its intention to replace the EIA 2006 notification with the EIA 2020 notification, by which it wishes to exclude large number of industries from public consultation, remove the ban on locating these projects close to Wildlife Sanctuaries and national parks, dilute environmental standards, and generally expand the slow poisoning of the population. The objective: improve “ease of doing business” for fat cat corporates whose rampant farting has already destabilized climate gases, and forced the planet to its knees.
Those of you who have the time and the inclination to resist and protest this nonsense, can do one of three things before 30 June, 2020, the cut off date:
a) Check out the response letter sent by the Goa Foundation to the Secretary, Environment Ministry (http://goafoundation.org/goa-foundation-objects-to-eia-2020/) challenging the idea of EIA 2020, and asking for the draft (it will be finalized after receipt and study of all objections) to be permanently shelved. You can construct your own letter out of that, since the Goa Foundation does not believe in imposing copyright on its work.
b) If you do not have the time or inclination to do that, but you still want to do something about the matter, simply write to the Secretary, Environment Ministry (email id: eia2020-moefcc@gov.in), endorsing the letter of the Goa Foundation dated 26.6.2020. Make sure to insist explicitly that you too feel that the draft EIA 2020 should be permanently shelved on the grounds given in the letter.
c) You can also visit the website (https://unitedconservationmovement.org/) of the United Conservation Movement (located in Bengaluru) which provides you comprehensive information on these issues. That site also offers assistance for ready and easy lodging of letters challenging the draft EIA 2020 and for demanding the strengthening of the existing EIA 2006 instead.
Every email the Ministry of Environment receives (eia2020-moefcc@gov.in), whether long or short, opposing EIA 2020, will hit target. If the Ministry gets an overwhelmingly negative dose from you, us and lots of others, it will have to put the draft notification into the nearest waste basket. Also get your friends and colleagues to join this effort, pleads Dr. Claude Alvares, Director ,The Goa Foundation &Team.(eom)
Panaji, June 27-The Goa Foundation,Goa-based environmental NGO requests a favour. Please read this post in its entirely!
The Government of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests(MoEF&CC) is attempting to force a new Environmental Impact Assessment(EIA)notification on the country. You need to get involved.
The process of granting an “environment clearance” appears innocent: before the project can start construction, the Ministry of Environment is required to be aware of negative impacts the new proposed activity may cause to nature and people. Hence all new projects – and existing projects that want to expand – have to submit to the EIA process.
The Ministry approved the first EIA notification in January 1994. It was then a mere 11 pages, but tight and fit as a fiddle, crystal clear to all.
In 2006, the Ministry replaced the 1994 notification with a new notification of 55 pages (EIA 2006). The EC process now became a murky game of words and pages. A gaggle of EIA consultants churned out spiral bound cut and paste jobs for which they were paid handsome fees. Most EIAs contained lies. All EIAs, paid for in cash, naturally supported the project, majority claiming the new project would do “marginal” damage to the environment. Any damage could be mitigated, etc., and so on. Expert Appraisal Committees (EAC), manned by fuddy duddies, willingly swallowed all the data in the EIA reports as gospel truth. As a result, each and every project was simply approved, and granted an “environment clearance”.
With the certificate in hand, two things became possible for the project proponent:
a) No further need of anxiety whether one followed the conditions imposed in the EC or not, since there was no post-EC monitoring. The EC became a certificate for legitimized pollution.
b) The EC became a tool to legitimize takeover of land from village communities, farmers, tribals and others. For the EACs the issue of “environment clearance” was reduced to pollution load. For people in whose locality the project was approved, what was “cleared” was the right of the developer to takeover their lands, the natural environment in which they lived free, without encumbrances and fences, and their earlier unchallenged opportunities for livelihood.
Today, true to its colours, the Ministry of Environment has declared its intention to replace the EIA 2006 notification with the EIA 2020 notification, by which it wishes to exclude large number of industries from public consultation, remove the ban on locating these projects close to Wildlife Sanctuaries and national parks, dilute environmental standards, and generally expand the slow poisoning of the population. The objective: improve “ease of doing business” for fat cat corporates whose rampant farting has already destabilized climate gases, and forced the planet to its knees.
Those of you who have the time and the inclination to resist and protest this nonsense, can do one of three things before 30 June, 2020, the cut off date:
a) Check out the response letter sent by the Goa Foundation to the Secretary, Environment Ministry (http://goafoundation.org/goa-foundation-objects-to-eia-2020/) challenging the idea of EIA 2020, and asking for the draft (it will be finalized after receipt and study of all objections) to be permanently shelved. You can construct your own letter out of that, since the Goa Foundation does not believe in imposing copyright on its work.
b) If you do not have the time or inclination to do that, but you still want to do something about the matter, simply write to the Secretary, Environment Ministry (email id: eia2020-moefcc@gov.in), endorsing the letter of the Goa Foundation dated 26.6.2020. Make sure to insist explicitly that you too feel that the draft EIA 2020 should be permanently shelved on the grounds given in the letter.
c) You can also visit the website (https://unitedconservationmovement.org/) of the United Conservation Movement (located in Bengaluru) which provides you comprehensive information on these issues. That site also offers assistance for ready and easy lodging of letters challenging the draft EIA 2020 and for demanding the strengthening of the existing EIA 2006 instead.
Every email the Ministry of Environment receives (eia2020-moefcc@gov.in), whether long or short, opposing EIA 2020, will hit target. If the Ministry gets an overwhelmingly negative dose from you, us and lots of others, it will have to put the draft notification into the nearest waste basket. Also get your friends and colleagues to join this effort, pleads Dr. Claude Alvares, Director ,The Goa Foundation &Team.(eom)
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