Govt weakened Environment Protection Rules during pandemic

CHENNAI: A study conducted by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy has revealed that the central government issued several notifications, circulars and orders during the Covid-19 lockdown that weakened Environment Protection Rules, 1986 and Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006. The notifications also affected the functioning of various institutions and statutory bodies.

The organisation analysed as many as 123 instruments (notifications, circulars and orders) that were issued between March 11, 2020 and March 22, 2022 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

As per the report, one of every three instruments (39 of 123) are found to be amendments made to various Rules and Notifications under the EP (Environment Protection) Act, with majority of the changes made to the Environment Protection Rules, 1986 (14) and the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006 (13). Nearly three-fourths of all such amendments are aimed at providing relaxations and exemptions to the statutory requirements prescribed under the pre-existing laws.

Out of 123 instruments, 74 are gazette notifications, 42 are office memorandums, circulars, letters and orders.

Around 44 per cent (54) of the instruments are related to developmental and industrial activities, followed by 39 per cent (48) instruments affecting the functioning of various institutions and statutory bodies such as the State Level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), Expert Appraisal Committees (EAC) and others. Most of the remaining 21 instruments are related to regulation of ecosystems and natural resources such as the coastal areas, groundwater and waste management.

Moreover, 16 per cent (20) of the instruments, which includes 12 office memorandums, 7 gazette notifications and a letter, affect the institutional integrity by disregarding statutory obligations, such as the mandate to consult EACs, dispensing the requirement of public consultations and others.

"It is extremely problematic that substantial changes in the statutory provisions are being introduced through OMs (office memorandums) as they are meant to be internal documents of the government used for inter and intra departmental communication of decisions. Since they are not mandatorily required to be in the public domain, they should not be used as instruments for issuing important environmental decisions. Instead, any such decision should be widely published as a notification in the official gazette of India, " the report said.

The report also opined that it is critical to review the efficacy of environmental laws and the problematic law-making process highlighted in the report as the pandemic appears to have been over.

"The (instruments) have reduced the independence of the agencies created under the EIA Notification, which is the spine of the environmental protection against industrial activities in the country. We recommend that the Ministry must constitute an independent committee to review all amendments and office orders brought in the environmental legislations and withdraw all such instruments which are found to be ultra vires and regressive, " it added.