The draft EIA notification 2020, which is going to replace the EIA notification 2006, was put in the public domain on March 12 and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change (MoEFCC).

Amendments proposed:

What is EIA:

Environment Impact Assessment or EIA can be defined as the study to predict the effect of a proposed activity/project on the environment. A decision making tool, EIA compares various alternatives for a project and seeks to identify the one which represents the best combination of economic and environmental costs and benefits.

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Project types:

The EIA Notification, 2006, broadly divides all projects into two categories—

  1. Category A – permission granted by granted by the Union environment ministry.
  2. Category B1 and B2 – permission by state level authorities.

Only Category A and Category B1 require an EIA and public consultation.

The eight steps of the EIA process are presented in brief below:

Road ahead:

Source:” NIOS/Downtoearth“.

Possible UPSC CSE Mains Question:

Examine the recently proposed amendments to the Environmental impact assessment act. Do they balance economic development and environmental sustainability?