UPSC CSE Mains Syllabus: GS-3- Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

In news:

The 21st century has seen multiple lethal epidemics.

Two were serious enough for the World Health Organization to designate as pandemics.

Reasons:

Impacts:

Environmental Impact Assessment:

During the lockdown, ‘expert’ bodies of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) have considered, and in many cases cleared, multiple industrial, mining and infrastructure proposals in critical wildlife habitats, and life and livelihood-sustaining forests.

These include,

“As the environment site Mongabay reported in May, authorities considered these projects via video-conferencing in contravention of environmental laws, and without all necessary documents or site inspections, in many cases spending just 10 minutes on a proposal.”

Draft Environment Impact Assessment:

What is the draft:

Analysis of the draft:

Road ahead:

Hence there is a strong need to strengthen the EIA process.

Source:” The Hindu“.

POSSIBLE UPSC CSE MAINS QUESTION:

The COVID – 19 pandemic should be a lesson to keep a check on the goal of blatant economic production while ignoring the environment. Comment. Why should the Environmental Impact Assessment be strengthened in the nation?