All you need to know about EIA 2020 -- A short video.
EIA 2020 fundamentally changes the environmental clearance process for ease of doing business. This video is available in several regional languages listed below.

In March 2020, a draft notification for Environment Impact Assessment 2020 was issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC). This is an important notification, since all new infrastructure projects – and expansion of existing ones – such as, roads, mining projects, factories, and power plants, are required to conduct a mandatory Environment Impact Assessment and submit a report to the Ministry.

An EIA report assesses how a project will impact the environment and is the basis on which the MoEFCC will approve or reject a project. The draft notification has been heavily criticised for fundamentally dismantling environmental safeguards to promote ease of doing business. It undermines the right of every citizen to a clean environment and subverts the democratic process.

The Ministry has invited public comments on the draft notification until 11th August 2020, for which this email address has been provided: eia2020-moefcc@gov.in.

Elephant tragically killed in a railway accident in North Bengal. The EIA process fails to consider impacts on wildlife. In fact, Railway projects do not even warrant an EIA process – a lacuna that the EIA 2020 draft notification does not address. Photo © Roni Chowdhury

Over 100 conservationists, concerned citizens, researchers and experts have written a detailed letter to the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, critiquing the EIA 2020 Draft Notification, requesting that it be withdrawn, and asking for a strengthening of the EIA 2006 notification.

This letter may be accessed here.

Concerned citizens may write to MoEFCC demanding withdrawal of EIA 2020 draft notification.

The letter below has a shorter version with all the salient points, and we encourage citizens to make use of it while sending their comments to the ministry. Both are available below in English and regional languages from the respective links:

India’s environmental crisis calls for strong and effectively implemented laws that control pollution, ensure a clean environment, conserve forests and wildlife, and warrant accountability from defaulting industries for an ecologically and economically secure future. Write to the MoEF and make your voice heard.

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