Since 1978, it is an essential administrative requirement for the mega projects to obtain environmental clearance from the MoEF, Govt. of India. In order to assess the impact of the developmental projects/activities on the environment, the Ministry of Environment and forests (MoEF), Govt. of India issued a gazette notification on the EIA on January 27, 1994 and made environmental clearance statutory for all the projects located in ecologically sensitive/fragile areas as notified by the Government of India from time to time, besides 29 categories of the projects (later increased to 32) as specified in the Schedule 1 of the Notification. These also include River Valley projects including hydel power, major irrigation, and their combination including flood control.The above Notification was superseded by EIA Notification brought out by MoEF on the 14th September, 2006.
In this article the author has discussed about the process involved in environment clearance, some case studies where the projects have been stalled on the demands of the NGOs and those people who are totally unconcerned and not affected with the project and the delays caused due to many factors for granting environment clearance and post clearance hindrances. With such actions the States are not signing PPAs, developers and financers are becoming uncertain and shirk in further development and funding of Hydro Projects.
Authorities in the Government should come out in favour of hydro projects and should deal firmly with NGOs who are not affected with the project and wants to stall development.
