43
4. There is no plan to motivate communities to protect local critical environments
such as open areas, wetlands etc.
5. Incentive tools such as preferential tax treatment, and watershed based and ecosystem based land management are not present in local management system.
Ecological footprint analysis, vulnerability analysis, life-cycle analysis are also
not incorporated into environmental planning.
6. Local level surveillance and monitoring, updating of environmental data, training programmes of employees on environmental issues, interdepartmental
coordination and information sharing are either absent or insufficient.
7. The existing penalty provisions in Indian environmental laws are lenient and
hard to impose. The situation is aggravated by a slow justice delivery system,
poor monitoring and enforcement capacity of regulators, and lack of comprehensive databases to evidence violations.
8. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is often looked upon as a legal or
administrative requirement and tries to justify a project decision already made
and are concerned mainly with remedial measures.
9. Near absence of site specific data on air quality, noise quality, groundwater,
surface water, soil quality etc. at local scale in the public domain makes it difficult to undertake preliminary studies for alternative project sites.
10. For groundwater assessment of the buffer and project area outdated Central
Ground Water Board (CGWB) district level booklet available in its website is
used which reflects regional condition of groundwater and may not reflect the
specific site conditions.
11. Ecological impact assessment is done mostly on the basis of secondary data.
12. Most of the EIA reports prepared for a particular new project or extension project considers only impacts that are relevant to project activities and lacks cumulative impact assessment due to presence of other existing projects or due to
other natural threats like climate change.
13. In most of the states in India solid waste management plan for collection and
disposal of solid waste at a local scale is absent. There is also no stringent
guideline present on the reuse of treated waste water within the industry and
factory site as a result of which most of the ETP installed in the industry or factory site remain unused for most of the time.
14. Modelling approach to assess the impacts for proposed project at different lifecycle is limited. EIA models suitable for temperate climates of many developed
countries are often applied without necessary modification in developing countries including India having tropical or sub-tropical climate. This often leads to
erroneous results and interpretation.
2 Contemporary Environmental Issues – The Indian Perspective
4. There is no plan to motivate communities to protect local critical environments
such as open areas, wetlands etc.
5. Incentive tools such as preferential tax treatment, and watershed based and ecosystem based land management are not present in local management system.
Ecological footprint analysis, vulnerability analysis, life-cycle analysis are also
not incorporated into environmental planning.
6. Local level surveillance and monitoring, updating of environmental data, training programmes of employees on environmental issues, interdepartmental
coordination and information sharing are either absent or insufficient.
7. The existing penalty provisions in Indian environmental laws are lenient and
hard to impose. The situation is aggravated by a slow justice delivery system,
poor monitoring and enforcement capacity of regulators, and lack of comprehensive databases to evidence violations.
8. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is often looked upon as a legal or
administrative requirement and tries to justify a project decision already made
and are concerned mainly with remedial measures.
9. Near absence of site specific data on air quality, noise quality, groundwater,
surface water, soil quality etc. at local scale in the public domain makes it difficult to undertake preliminary studies for alternative project sites.
10. For groundwater assessment of the buffer and project area outdated Central
Ground Water Board (CGWB) district level booklet available in its website is
used which reflects regional condition of groundwater and may not reflect the
specific site conditions.
11. Ecological impact assessment is done mostly on the basis of secondary data.
12. Most of the EIA reports prepared for a particular new project or extension project considers only impacts that are relevant to project activities and lacks cumulative impact assessment due to presence of other existing projects or due to
other natural threats like climate change.
13. In most of the states in India solid waste management plan for collection and
disposal of solid waste at a local scale is absent. There is also no stringent
guideline present on the reuse of treated waste water within the industry and
factory site as a result of which most of the ETP installed in the industry or factory site remain unused for most of the time.
14. Modelling approach to assess the impacts for proposed project at different lifecycle is limited. EIA models suitable for temperate climates of many developed
countries are often applied without necessary modification in developing countries including India having tropical or sub-tropical climate. This often leads to
erroneous results and interpretation.
2 Contemporary Environmental Issues – The Indian Perspective