This document provides information about an online panel discussion on objections and suggestions to the Draft EIA Notification 2020. The discussion was scheduled for April 18, 2020 from 11:00-12:00 hrs on Webex, hosted by Biohm Consultare Pvt. Ltd. It includes the meeting link and login details. The document then provides a brief history of the EIA process in India since the 1970s and key changes made to the EIA notification over the years, including revisions to project categories and thresholds, and additions of requirements like baseline data validity periods and standardized terms of reference. It also lists some of the major changes introduced in the last 5 years through various amendments notifications.

1. O N L I N E PA N E L D I S C U S S I O N
O N
O B J E C T I O N S / S U G G E S T I O N S T O
D R A F T E I A N O T I F I C A T I O N – 2 0 2 0
D A T E – 1 8 T H A P R I L 2 0 2 0 O V E R W E B E X
H O S T E D B Y B I O H M C O N S U L T A R E P V T . L T D .
T I M E - 1 1 . 0 0 – 1 2 . 0 0 H R S
Ve n u e – W e b e x
M E E T I N G I N F O R M A T I O N
M e e t i n g L i n k :
h t t p s : / / m e e t i n g s a p a c 8 . w e b e x . c o m / m e e t i n g s a p a c 8 / j . p h p ? m t i d = m 1 b c b 6 6 6 c 1 1 0 c c e 9 f 6 c 5 e 8 b b e 9 5 b f 6 8 4 f
M e e t i n g N u m b e r : 5 7 7 0 0 8 3 4 5
P a s s w o r d : e i a 2 0 2 0 ( 3 4 2 2 0 2 0 F r o m P h o n e )
E m a i l – b i o h m c o n s u l t a r e @ g m a i l . c o m
M o b i l e - + 9 1 9 9 0 9 9 6 8 9 5 3

2. NAMASTE
STAY AT HOME, BE ALERT, BE SAFE

3. D EVELOPMEN TS IN EIA N OTIFIC ATION /EC PR OC ESS
• 1977-78: Concept of EIA/EC process begins with River valley projects. No legislation support.
• 23rd May 1986: Environment Protection Act 1986, after Bhopal Gas Tragedy (2-3 Dec. 1984).
• 27th Jan. 1994: First Notification under EPA 1986 was issued. EIA process became statuary requirement rather than administrative for Project/activities.
• 27th October, 2003 [S.O.1236 (E)]: Draft Amendments: Any construction project falling under entry 31 of Schedule-I including new townships, industrial townships, settlement colonies, commercial
complexes, hotel complexes, hospitals and office complexes for 1,000 (one thousand) persons or below or discharging sewage of 50,000 litres per day or below or with an investment of Rs.50,00,00,000/-
or below.
• Any industrial estate falling under entry 32 of Schedule-I including industrial estates accommodating industrial units in an area of 50 hectares or below but excluding the industrial estates irrespective of area
if their pollution potential is high.
• 7th July 2004 [S.O.801 (E)]: I. In paragraph 3- Any construction project falling under entry 31 of Schedule-I including new townships, industrial townships, settlement colonies, commercial complexes,
hotel complexes, hospitals and office complexes for 1,000 (one thousand) persons or below or discharging sewage of 50,000 litres per day or below or with an investment of Rs.50,00,00,000/- or below.
• Any industrial estate falling under entry 32 of Schedule-I including industrial estates accommodating industrial units in an area of 50 hectares or below but excluding the industrial estates irrespective of area
if their pollution potential is high.
• II. In Schedule-I, after item 30 and the entry relating thereto, the following shall be inserted, namely:-
• 31. New construction projects.
• 32. New industrial estates.
• 14th Sept. 2006: Revised EIA notification- Different projects divided into 8 heads requiring EC either from MoEF or SEAC. Projects were divided into A and B (B1 & B2) category. A and B1 require EIA
studies along with Public Hearing as per notification.
• 11th Oct. 2007 [S.O. 1737 (E)]: New national/state highway and its expansion and GC apply for item 1(a).
• 19th Jan. 2009 [S.O. 195 (E)]: Revised threshold criteria for different categories. Public hearing agenda placed into Public domain and easier process of EIA and EC.
• In said notification,
• In para 2 after subpara (iii) - However, modernization or expansion proposals without any increase in pollution load and or without any additional water and or land requirement are exempted from the
provision of this notification.
• In para 3 for subpara (7) - All decisions of SEIAA shall be taken in a meeting by majority.
• In para 4, in subpara (iii) - In absence of a duly constituted SEIAA or SEAC, a cat. B projects shall be considered at the Central level. However cat. B projects are exempted from scoping for three years
from the date of issue of this notification shall be substituted
• In para 7(i), in subpara III (Stage 3 of PH)- (i). Dredging provided the dredged material shall be disposed or dumped within port limits.
• (ii). All building or construction projects or area development projects (which do not contain any category A projects and activities) and Township (item 8).
• Some other amendments in schedule and category on mining were incorporated.

4. LATEST CHANGES IN EIA NOTIFICATION IN LAST 5 YEARS
• Std. ToR for scoping for all Industry - April 2015
• Baseline Data in EIA - valid for 3 years – 29th Aug. 2017.
• STP discharged limit revised – 13th Oct. 2017
• Public Hearing Exception – 27th April 2018.
• Violation case- 14th March 2018, then 30th May 2018.
• CER instead of CSR or ESC- 1st May 2018
• Water consumption and Stack height for TPP- 28th June 2018.
• Guidelines for Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems- June 2018
• Form 2- for EIA submission – 20th April 2018.
• List of Prohibited Pesticides- 8th Aug. 2018
• Std. EC conditions – 9th Aug. 2018
• Mining Area changed from 50 Ha to 100 Ha- 14th Aug. 2018.
• DEAC/DEIAA - dissolved and PH is required more than 5 Ha. – as per NGT verdict on 13th Sept. 2018.
• Last year April 2019- Zero Draft Notification has come
• Dec. 2019 – Draft Notification has come.
• Now Draft EIA Notification 2020 under public domain for suggestions