MoEF bats for cumulative environment assessment of projects

Ministry to set up Centre for Wetland Studies in Orissa

Concerned about the danger posed to the environment by highly polluting industries in sectors like steel and power, the Union ministry of environment & forests (MoEF) plans to insist on having cumulative environment impact assessment (EIA) studies of all the projects taken together.

The move would be a paradigm shift from the current practice of having assessments of individual projects on the environment.

On a tour to Orissa recently, Union minister for environment & forests Jairam Ramesh, said, “I believe that the time has come when we have to look at the combined impact of all the projects coming up in a particular industrial belt on the environment. We will insist on cumulative and comprehensive EIAs. So far, it has been done on a project-to-project basis”.

Stating that states like Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh have already started thinking of conducting comprehensive EIAs, he urged the Orissa government to initiate action on similar lines.

"Orissa has attracted a lot of investment proposals in the power sector and availability of water for these projects is going to be a critical area. The state government needs to carry out a cumulative assessment of all these power projects”, Ramesh stated.

Citing the examples of Ratnagiri district in Maharashtra which has attracted power projects with a combined capacity of 35,000 MW and the state of Arunachal Pradesh where hydel projects with a total capacity of around 30,000 MW have been proposed, he pointed out that it was high time that cumulative assessments were done.

The cumulative assessments are significant as there are many places where the carrying capacity of environment has been exceeded, he said.

Asked on the categorization of Manoharpur coal blocks alloted to the state owned Orissa Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) as 'no-go' areas, the minister said, “The Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP) proposed in Orissa along with the projects proposed by NTPC and OPGC fall in the no-go area. I had said that if the Union power ministry intends to go ahead with the UMPP, then the other two projects have to be given up as pursuing all the three projects together would mean environmental disaster. The ball is now in the power ministry's court”.

The minister also declared new centres for Orissa which will focus on environment protection.

"The MoEF will help establish a National Centre for Wetland & Coastal Studies which will be located partly in Bhubaneswar and partly at Chilika. The ministry will spend Rs 40 crore over the next five years on this project. We are also going to establish a Centre for Turtle & Biodiversity Studies and the location for this centre has to be decided by the state government. This centre would involve an investment of Rs 10 crore”, he said.