Centre to Dilute Environmental Clearance Regulations for Various Irrigation, Mining and Township Projects

Floating away from existing norms, the Centre is all set to dilute environmental clearance regulations for various projects including irrigation, townships and mining of minerals such as sand, marble, limestone and brick earth. 

The Draft Amendment Notification issued on December 18 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has sought to change the definitions of existing category A and B irrigation projects. The projects which have to obtain environmental clearance from the Centre are classified as category ‘A’ and the projects seeking clearance from the state governments come under the category ‘B’. 

Irrigation projects occupying an area of 10,000 hectares or more required appraisal from the Centre and this falls under category ‘A’. But the proposed amendment raises that limit to 50,000 hectares or more.

The threshold of category ‘B’, which currently has a limit between 2,000 to 10,000 hectares, has been lifted to a limi between 5,000 to 50,000 hectares as per the new notification. 

Then what about projects below 5,000 hectares? Don’t they obtain environmental clearance? The newly surface notification has no mention of this category. 

Meanwhile, the amendment exempted certain irrigation projects from obtaining new environmental clearance saying projects that lead to an increase in Culturable Command Area but do not increase dam height or submergence will not require environmental clearance.

Doubling the threshold, the notification allows states to give clearance for mining projects that require up to 100 hectares of mining lease area, in respect to non-coal mine lease. The existing limit for the mining of non-coal mine areas is 50 hectares. The mining lease area in respect of coal mine lease was raised to 150 hectares. 

Yet another change proposed is for the townships and area development projects. The built-up area of 1,50,000 sq meters or 50 hectares, or more, will come under category B as per the new draft. Category A will include projects with built-up area of 3,00,000 sq meters or 150 ha, or more.

The BJP-led Centre which is pushing forward to create ‘ease of business’ in the country for investors has diluted a number of environmental clearance regulations in last three years. But in certain cases, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has axed or directed the Centre to re-examine the projects. 

The latest intervention from NGT was on the notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in December 2016. In its judgement on December 21, the NGT has directed the Ministry to re-examine its notification and take appropriate steps to delete, amend and rectify it. 

The notification which had exempted real estate projects of built-up area up to 1,50,000 sq km from environment clearance, had also given an exemption to the operation of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 for building and construction projects up to 1,50,000 sq meters.

Earlier, on December 8, the NGT in its judgement observed that the ministry's notification has several deficiencies which go against the basic spirit of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification.

While pronouncing the judgement, the court had noted that the environmental laws “need to be brought into play because today environmental law is facing a number of threats such as deregulation, a movement to simplify and at the same time diminish environmental legislation perceived as too complex and an economic climate which favours development at the expense of protection of environment.”