How does the draft Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2020 differ from the existing EIA Notification, 2006?
Subtopic: Environmental Impact Assessment · Regulatory framework
How to structure your answer
Introduction: Frame EIA as the clearance appraisal and note the draft 2020 as a proposed replacement for the 2006 regime.
Body: Three contrasts — post-facto clearance, weaker public consultation, and expanded exemptions/longer compliance gaps.
Conclusion: One line on the regulation-versus-ease-of-business tension.
Written within the word limit
143 words · target 150 words · 9 min
Introduction: An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the prior appraisal a project must clear under the EIA Notification, 2006. The draft 2020 notification proposed to replace it, and differs sharply on three counts that drew wide criticism.
Body:
- Post-facto clearance: The 2006 rule barred any construction before clearance; the draft 2020 allowed already-running projects to seek approval after the fact, legitimising past violations through penalties.
- Public consultation: It trimmed the minimum notice period for public hearings from 30 to 20 days and exempted a wider list of activities, weakening the affected public's voice in decision-making.
- Exemptions and oversight: It expanded the Category B2 list kept out of public consultation and stretched mandatory compliance reporting from once every six months to once a year, easing post-clearance scrutiny.
Conclusion: The draft tilted toward faster approvals and ease of business at the cost of the precautionary safeguards the 2006 regime was built upon.
What an examiner expects to see
- EIA Notification, 2006 requires prior environmental clearance before any construction begins
- Draft 2020 allowed post-facto (ex-post) clearance for projects that started without approval
- Supreme Court has held ex-post-facto clearance contrary to environmental jurisprudence
- Public consultation notice period cut from 30 days to 20 days under the draft
- Draft expanded the Category B2 list exempted from public consultation
- Compliance report frequency relaxed from once every six months to annually
- Several activities listed as 'strategic' could be kept outside public scrutiny
- Both regimes retain the screening, scoping, public consultation and appraisal stages
Concrete cases, schemes and judgments
- Category B2 exemptions for minor-mineral mining up to 5 hectares
- Hydroelectric river-valley projects up to 25 MW exempted in the draft
- Offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration exemptions
- Annual versus half-yearly compliance reporting change