INTRODUCTION

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a procedure for determining the likely environmental effects of a proposed project or development, taking into account both positive and negative socioeconomic, cultural, and human-health effects. It is essentially a preliminary assessment of a strategy, stratagem, programme, or real project’s environmental impact before deciding whether or not to proceed with the suggested actions. It examines both the positive and negative aspects of the project in detail and confirms that these additional consequences must be considered. Furthermore, it aids in the analysis of the most possible manner of the environmental impacts in that specific project, offers steps to mitigate the effects, and forecasts if there will be significant unfavourable environmental consequences even after the reduction is achieved. Because EIA is so unique, it doesn’t necessitate any adherence to pre-determined environmental outcomes. EIA, when properly managed, lowers disputes by promoting community involvement, evaluating decision-makers, and so forth. EIA has been considered at every stage of a project, from research and planning to building, operation, and demilitarisation, as well as site closures.

NEED FOR EIA

Biotic and abiotic components make up the environment. These elements are in a state of dynamic equilibrium. When a project is started, these components are likely to be disturbed. To preserve the quality of the environment, it is critical that the project’s potential effects on the natural environment be assessed and corrective actions adopted as soon as possible in order to support the project’s long-term, holistic growth. EIA is used to do this. Understanding these effects helps in protecting the equilibrium maintained in the environment and ensuring it’s not disturbed.

OBJECTIVES OF EIA

The basic of objectives of EIA can be said to be as follows:

1. Firstly, it leads to Identification, forecasting and assessing the economic, environmental and social impact of developed activities.
2. For the decision-making process, it provides relative information on environmental consequences.
3. Through the proper mode of identification of a mitigation process, it promotes environmentally sound and sustainable development.
4. It further seeks to increase the apprehensions of the ecological system and natural resources which are essential to the world.
5. It also provides a better understanding of the desegregated perspective of a region about and undergoing developments.
6. It provides negative and positive aspects of any project which is very important to understand the overall effect of any project on the environment.

ADVANTAGES OF EIA

Some of the advantages of the EIA are as follows-

1. EIA associates the environment with the development of environment-based sustainable development thereby ensuring the maintenance of the environment in the long run.
2. It is provided with the relevant method to minimise the adverse impacts of the developmental projects which helps in the development of the entire country without the destruction of the environment.
3. It also heartens the adaption of certain practices in the plan such as mitigation practice which is a major support to prevent damage to the environment not just from developmental projects but also from different other day to day actions.
4. It corroborates that the developmental plan is environmentally clear and sound as well as within the limits of regeneration of the ecosystem making it easier for the citizens to trust and support the plans as it has been proven to them that the plan will not affect the environment in an adverse manner
5. Certain effects have to be analysed by the consulted authorities ensuring that the analysis is done in an efficient manner by people who are well versed in the matter.
6. The authorities involved looks at the matter very carefully, reviewing every small detail and its effects before implementing the project. This is important as these projects if not analysed in a careful manner could lead to drastic detrimental effects.

DRAWBACKS OF EIA

While there are advantages to the assessment, there are certain drawbacks which affect the efficiency of the assessment:

1. It costs time delays which states that it delays both the company projects as well as the government. This may cause trouble for clients who have to submit their work before the deadline especially in the case of India where government offices tend to be overloaded with a bulk of work slowing down the process of an EIA. With a delay in time, there may be changes to the predictions made during the EIA and hence this may require another EIA to be done.
2. It requires preparation and follow-ups. As many countries face issues related to this matter due to the lack of infrastructure. Sometimes they skip one or both these procedures. The skipping of these procedures tends to prove to be detrimental for the environment.
3. The data collectors, however, do not pay respect to the indigenous knowledge of the local people and instead rely only on their own data. The local people usually have a much better understanding of the land than the data collectors and the knowledge they possess must be given importance as it will help in increasing the efficiency of the EIA by helping the data collectors better understand the land and its surrounding area

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