Green Tapism : A Review of the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification - 2006

Contents: Abbreviations used. Index of references. Introduction. 1. Decentralization and devolution. 2. Structural issues relating to decision-making. 3. Deficiencies in the various stages of the EC process. 4. Unwarranted exemptions, loopholes and lacunae in the EC process. 5. Problems with the enforcement of environmental clearances. 6. Relationship with and continued relevance of EIA notification 1994. Concluding remarks.

From the preface: "This notification was issued on 14 September and its journey from the draft stage to its final form and after has been marked by controversy and widespread protests.

This review was undertaken acknowledging the widespread concern that the EIA notification was manipulated to suit certain vested interests thus putting to enormous risk the ecological and livelihood security of India. The fact that the notification is the only legal instrument that explicitly mandates and defines the process for public involvement in environmental decision-making, and that this very process was being undermined, compelled us even more to undertake this task. In so doing we have had to review the objectives by which the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF, which issued the notification) was established. Clearly the mandate has always been to make the task of conservation and environmental management everyone\'s responsibility and not subject to "expert systems". In that sense it is natural to expect that MoEF would meaningfully involve the public in all stages of the process of formulation of the notification."