Is development to mean that the life and health of people does not matter and that the environment is valued in terms of what can be extracted from it or how it can be used as an industrial dumping ground?

The rhetoric, oft-repeated in policy documents, is that the Government of India is committed to sustainable development – which by its definition would integrate environmental, social and economic concerns into the development framework.

The pathway of development that has been adopted, however, is quite the opposite, as evidenced by the recently released Draft EIA Notification. This is the latest in a series of measures that have been initiated over the past decade to reduce the scope and effectiveness of Environmental Impact Assessments, one of the primary tools for the achievement of sustainable development, environmental democracy and good governance.

EIAs, which ensure that industries are set up on the basis of strong environmental standards and checks, are steadily being set aside in favour of a regime where more and more industries can operate without having to take the environment into account, nor people’s life and health.

By greatly reducing the number of projects that will require EIAs, the Draft Notification is moving India away from globally-recognised standards of environmental governance and norms of International Environmental Law.

What is more, it is an attack on environmental democracy.

A mark of progression in civilisational development, environmental democracy is an expression of the acknowledgment of the human-environment connection and the need, therefore, for people to have the right to participate in decisions that impact the environment and thereby their lives.

This, in fact, is the foundation of democracy itself. The word ‘democracy’, i.e. rule by the people, originates from the Greek word demos meaning all citizens living in a particular citystate and kratos meaning rule or power. At its heart, it is a means of allowing people to participate in decisions and activities that have a bearing on their lives.

Choice, inclusion, having a voice, equality are all aspects of this. Indeed, environmental democracy is a natural progression of democracy, justice, as well as human rights, as the environment is the basis of survival and access to all that is necessary for staying alive and living a productive life.

Basic needs form the basis of human rights and those same needs make a healthy environment vital for human rights, and thereby make the environment a necessary arena for public participation.

By limiting public participation in Environmental Impact Assessments and excluding altogether a number of industrial and development activities from the EIA process, the Draft Notification is weakening environmental democracy and hurtling India down a pathway of unsustainable development.

What is more, through vaguely worded provisions, the Draft Notification gives wide discretion to the Government to exempt further projects from having to conduct Environmental Impact Assessments. Leeway has also been given to the Central Government in the case of projects involving ‘strategic considerations.’

All that has been revealed about this category is that it involves projects in addition to those ‘concerning national defence and security’ (Section 14 e, Draft Notification, March 2020).

Considering the vagueness of the term and the discretion given to the Government, one wonders how far the term will be extended. Would hydropower projects that the Government is keen to promote be considered ‘strategic’? Would trans-boundary projects be categorised as such?

Furthermore, when classified in this manner, access to information about these projects would be denied to the public; knowledge regarding the environmental and social impacts would in effect be hidden.

Roads and pipelines in border areas will also not require public consultations. The definition of a border area, however, covers some of the most biodiverse regions, such as in the Northeast. Some border projects are also transboundary projects or have transboundary impacts, for which international law requires Environmental Impact Assessments; consultations with affected populations is a key part of this.

The International Court of Justice has, in fact, affirmed that Environmental Impact Assessments are a requirement under general international law, where there is a risk that a proposed industrial activity could have a significant adverse impact in a transboundary context.

The legalisation of a system of poor environmental standards will not only further the degradation of the environment, it will also give rise to more tragedies such as the recent gas leak in Vishakhapatnam where eight hundred people had to be rushed to various hospitals after inhaling toxic styrene vapours and twelve people lost their lives.

The company, LG Polymers, had been operating without an environmental clearance, with the consent of the State Pollution Control Board. It thus continued to operate close to areas with a dense population without any environmental safeguards and checks. It is, in fact, one of the many companies that had applied for an Environmental Clearance when the government announced in 2017 that ‘post facto’ or post-operational Environmental Clearances would be granted.

What kind of future is India heading towards with a governance framework where people’s health and welfare is endangered, and where the environment, the very basis of survival, is destroyed? For whom is this development?

The writer is Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, Jindal School of Environment and Sustainability, O.P. Jindal Global University, India.