Pursuing the Distilled Good Practices to Improve the Quality of Environmental Impact Assessment Reports and Hence Enhance the EIA Effectiveness and Help Address the Concerns of Project Proponents: An Indian Context

Despite a wealth of literature on the different facets of the EIA, and copious theoretical knowledge and practical experience, the general agreement is eluding definitions of EIA effectiveness, quality, and good practices. There are apprehensions about EIA meeting its basic objectives while project proponents continue to treat EIA as an impediment to development. Governments tend to adopt a “practical” approach, sacrificing pillars of EIA and overlooking the prime objective of environmental protection. Based on an extensive literature study and the author’s long EIA-related experience, some key workable practices for the EIA process are elaborated. Meticulous scoping using different sets of lenses, spotlighting significant impacts to determine the breadth and depth of EIA reports for focussed EIAs, robust EIA review and decision-making, commitment from the regulators for environmental protection, and use of strategic planning, strategic environmental assessment, and tiering practices are expected to address scholars’ apprehensions and project proponents’ concerns.