ABSTRACT
The chapter looks at the environmental clearance process of dams and hydropower projects in India for the period April 2007 to December 2012. It looks critically at each stage of the environmental clearance process, the functioning of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, particularly the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on River Valley and Hydropower Projects for the said period, with some updates since then till the present. The review of the functioning of the EAC shows that the committee functions more like an Expert Approval Committee rather than an Expert Appraisal Committee that it is supposed to be. This is because, during the review period, the committee did not reject any proposal for environmental clearance and said a temporary no (suggesting how the projects can come back) to two projects at the Terms of Reference (initial) stage. This is despite shoddy Environment Impact Assessments, violations in public consultation processes and the EAC itself suffering not only from lack of expertise but also conflict of interest in several cases. It concludes that even the judiciary has not been able to help improve this situation. It provides several suggestions as to how to improve this state of affairs.
