Role of EIA Consultants - Healthy or ?

[RAGHAVA]

Dear All,

Is EIA study in our country is going in a right direction. we see proponents appoint EIA consultants to study the impacts arising out from their project and consultants job is to provide an EIA report which gives Environmental clearance to the project rather than studying the exact and appropriate impacts arising out from the project.

Is this the fault of project proponent or of the Consultant or of our administrative procedures....................?

Raghava

[Ajay Ranjith V]

All said and done my view of Consultants should be the proeffeciency they bring to the client they are serving. They may take up the works to get clearence for XYZ project along with the obligation of not giving made up data but instead work with client to get back the deviating factors interms of environment within acceptable limits may by providing the client with requisit information on how XYZ can be made enviro friendly and get clearence with a clean goal..

[Narayana Rao Mushti]

Dear ALL,
Professional Consultants with integrity provide realistic reports of Environmental Impacts which may not be pelatable to project propenents.This forum should encourage such professionals.
Regards,
Dr M N Rao

[Krishna Viswanathan]

Dear Mr. Raghava,

Dr Pillai and Mr. Chatterjee make great points.

I also think that the basis for the origination of Exx's (EIA's, EIS's) need to be examined. In the US, the underlying regulation that supports Exx's is NEPA, which in large part obligates facilities proposing projects to examine the ecosystem effects of proposals to determine the least ecosystem effects from the principal proposal and alternatives. But it would be pertinent to ask these questions - where is the regulation placed in the context of laws of the nation, what are the enforcement statutes, which Ministry is driving the regulation, and the development context of the nation, among others. These factors drive where the regulations are placed, what teeth they have, and may provide an understanding of the public policy appetite is for enforceability of such regulations. So the underlying infrastructure in terms of statutes, regulations, and public policy play an important role in the determining the quality and rigor of Exx's you may be able to effect in reality. Until there is a fundamental examination and truing of these aspects of the regulatory system, we can require quality and comprehensiveness in reporting, which does provide transparency but may fall short of the goal of minimizing ecosystem effects that are systemic and not dependant on political winds or judicial activism. But maybe that is the starting point?

It may be also interesting to note that environmental regulations evolve over time based on experience and the effects they have on the nation. So there is a lifecycle process for regulations to which the experience of professionals, corporations, and the government provide directionality - less conservative, more conservative, etc. Professional bodies and accreditation measures are important steps in establishing standards for the industry which need to go hand-in-hand with other efforts.

Thanks for starting a great discussion,

Krishna Viswanathan

[Prof. L. Ramakrishnan]

MOEF has taken steps to improve the situation. Now EIA consutants engaged for EIAs which require MOEF clearance need to be accredited by NABET (National Accreditation Board for Education and Training under the Quality Council of India). The Scheme of NABET attempts to accredit those involved in preparing EIAs based on their experience, qualification and competence, as EIA coordinators and Functional Area Experts. 45 Sectors and 11 Functional areas have been identified; those handling the sectors and functional areas for the EIA need to have certain minimum qualifications and experience. No EIA carried out by Consultants not accredited by NABET will be accepted by MOEF from 01 Jan 2011. This is a good attempt.

But as pointed out by Mr Raghavacharyulu, let us not forget that the EIA project has its commercial dimension too. The supplier - customer relationship and the availability of many suppliers can cause much damage to the nature of EIA - a decision making tool.

The NABET Scheme with attempts to provide a level playing field for quality EIA professionals should be able to take care of this issue to an extent; but finally people who manage the consultant organizations and project proponents also have to contribute to improving the quality of our EIA reports.

Let us hope that something positive happens in the near future.

[Prof Dr V N Sivasankara Pillai]

EIA involves inputs from many areas. Professional experts are guided by professional ethics. There is no system of professional enrollment in the environmental sector. A professional is bound to update his knowledge and skills. This all the more important in EIA. There must be a mechanism for accrediting the sector professional. Also the professional must update his knowledge and skills in very three years. For this purpose we have to establish professional bodies, not sectarian associations. The CV of experts must be available in the report.
The competence of environmental monitoring agencies and their personnel must also be made professional.
It is high time that the EIA report and attachments in full along with comments and attachments are put in the net so that the stake holders can have easy access to information.

[Biplob Chatterjee]

Excellent topic for discussion, Raghava!

I am a mining and mineral exploration consultant. Atleast in my domain, I do see EIA and consequent EMPs produced by consultants for corporates, in India or by projects funded by Indian corporates working in other third world countries, only as obligatory administrative procedure. In my experience, even the best known (name anyone) and the largest Indian corporations have only myopic vision towards EIA.

However, we have seen the Supreme Court playing an activist's role in recent times - with some historic decisions to prevent mining in the Aravallis or cancellation of iron ore mining permit in Kudremukh; we have also seen the Ministry of Environment rejecting the ML application on Niyamgiri for bauxite - hopefully, these would also establish new benchmarks to look at environmental issues for any development project... and hopefully corporations would start looking at EIA and EMPs seriously - with a commitment towards real sustainable development...