Environmental Impact Assessment Law Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The term comes from the National Environmental Policy Act, 1969.

The US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), signed in January 1970, first required federal agencies to prepare a detailed statement of the environmental impact of major actions. That requirement is the origin of environmental impact assessment, which then spread to other countries.

India's Air Act (1981), Water Act (1974) and Environment (Protection) Act (1986) came later; EIA in India was made mandatory by a notification under the 1986 Act in 1994, borrowing the concept rather than creating it.

Answer: C

Public hearing became part of EIA in India in 1997.

The Environment Impact Assessment Notification of 1994 made environmental clearance mandatory for listed projects. An amendment of 10 April 1997 added a mandatory public hearing, conducted through the State Pollution Control Boards, so that people affected by a project could be heard before clearance.

2006 is the year of the revised EIA Notification that replaced the 1994 one and kept public consultation as a stage. 2003 and 2010 are not the years public hearing was introduced; 2010 is when the National Green Tribunal Act was passed.

Answer: C

The procedure is Environmental Impact Assessment.

EIA is the process of identifying, predicting and evaluating the beneficial and adverse environmental effects of a proposed project before a decision is taken on it, so that mitigation can be built in. In India it is mandatory for listed projects under the EIA Notification, 2006.

Ecological risk assessment estimates the likelihood of harm from stressors such as chemicals, life cycle assessment measures the impacts of a product from cradle to grave, and integrated environmental management is a broad management approach rather than an appraisal of one proposal.