Environmental Impact Assessment + Agriculture Techniques & Revolutions

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)

Environmental impact assessment is the formal process used to predict the environmental consequences (positive or negative) of a plan, policy, program, or project prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action.

• An important management tool for ensuring optimal use of natural resources for sustainable development.
• Aimed to ensure that decision makers consider the environmental impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project.
• A useful aid for decision making based on understanding of the environment implications including social, cultural and aesthetic concerns which could be integrated with the analysis of the project costs and benefits.

• Once an application has been submitted by a project authority along with all the requisite documents specified in the EIA Notification, it is scrutinized by the technical staff of the Ministry prior to placing it before the Environmental Appraisal Committees.
• The Appraisal Committees evaluate the impact of the project based on the data furnished by the project authorities and if necessary, site visits or on-the-spot assessment of various environmental aspects are also undertaken.
• Based on such examination, the Committees make recommendations for approval or rejection of the project, which are then processed in the Ministry for approval or rejection.