Yes, I am fully aware of the fact that nothing lives forever. The second law of Thermodynamics quite clearly indicates that the universe will perish as it attains a state of maximum entropy, devoid of any gradient needed to sustain information processing, one form of which is life. In what way that happens, will ultimately depend upon the shape and the amount of dark energy in the universe. But then, that event is trillions of years away.

On the other hand, theological cosmogony, particularly the Vedic time scale mentions a cyclic timeline that repeats itself forever, fundamentally divided into the four Yugas and then Manvantaras and Kalpas, ultimately culminating itself with the dissolution of Lord Brahma into the Para Brahm. This doctrine also attempts to describe the history of human evolution.

Now, in modern times, the prevailing theory of Survival of the Fittest explains that human beings are a result of the gradual evolution process starting from single-cell organisms. But the Four Yuga system speaks of the declining journey of human beings across the ages. Kali Yuga, the contemporary Yuga, is described as a time when human civilization degenerates spiritually. Common attributes and consequences mentioned about this Yuga are spiritual bankruptcy, mindless hedonism, breakdown of all social structure, greed, materialism, unrestricted egotism, afflictions and maladies of mind and body.

Personally, I have never paid serious heed to these principles. Like I mentioned earlier, I am an optimistic futurist. I think the best days of humanity are well ahead of us. A time where we employ our intelligence, intuition, wisdom and our mastery over technology to create an utopia, colonising worlds, seeding them with life, undertaking engineering at planetary or stellar scales, building Dyson Spheres, Alderson Disks and Matrioshka Brains. As optimistic as I am, I also never expected this fantastic journey to be smooth and rapid. I knew it would take thousands of years and is ultimately a subject to our triumph over some occasional but nonetheless potent hurdles that threaten to end our civilisation like nuclear or biological warfare, cosmic extinction events, the threat of artificial intelligence etc. but the same optimism in me has led me to believe that these hurdles are mere technological challenges, which will be overcome by our ingenuity, resilience and the exponential growth of our technological proficiency over time.

However, in the past few days, a certain prediction about the current era, from various theological perspectives has caught my attention. The aforementioned prediction about humanity’s spiritual degradation. We might be able to fight most of our existential threats with technology but can we overcome spiritual degradation with the same optimistic attitude and technology as a weapon in our arsenal? Are we, as I speak, gradually witnessing the same decline in human civilization mentioned in our Vedic doctrine of time? For instance, some of the narratives of Kali Yuga, mentioned in the scriptures refer to a time when avarice and wrath are common and humans openly display animosity towards each other.

Truthfulness, cleanliness, tolerance and mercy diminish with each passing day. People cultivate thoughts of murder with no justification and feel no remorse. Lust is viewed as socially acceptable and sex is seen as the central requirement of life. Virtue fades way and ceases to flourish. People become addicted to intoxicating drinks and drugs and no longer get married, rather choosing to live with each other just for sexual pleasure. Weather and the environment degrade with time bringing infrequent and unpredictable rain. Diseases and fake ideologies spread throughout the world and the powerful dominate the poor. One glance into the world today and it’s quite easy to observe the kind of spiritual degradation being talked about in those scriptures. We’ve achieved wonders with our mastery over technology but does our journey and growth in the spiritual realm need introspection and scrutiny? Has our species declined in virtue? Are we unknowingly plummeting into this demonic illusion of greed, lust, malice and jealousy? People are being killed for petty reasons, there exist unimaginable divisions between the rich and the poor. The sanctity of relationships is gone, replaced with lust and social utility. Are we becoming way too practical and logical for our own good? Was my optimism and pragmatic approach about the future in vain?

For many of us, these questions might seem to be of the rhetorical kind, designed to tap into our personal insecurities but I honestly think it’s time to stop, pull over for a while and introspect, whether we’re travelling in the path we ought to be and doing something that culminates into the greater good or tumbling into a future that begets a fiery cataclysm of destruction.

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With the similar objective of promoting investments through transparent and expedient approvals by implementation of an online system, further delegation, rationalization and standardization of the process as part of ease of doing business in March 2020, the environment ministry proposed a draft notification to replace the 2006 EIA. Currently, the notification is at the stage of public comments. This draft raised key concerns among the communities as it primarily provides for a reduction of time period from 30 days to 20 days for the public to submit their responses during a public hearing for any application seeking environmental clearance.

It also requires that the public hearing process be completed in 40 days compared to 45 days under the 2006 notification. In addition to this projects can receive clearance post-facto, i.e. a project operating in violation of the EPA can now apply for clearance and it also increased the discretionary power of state government to waive the process of getting clearance for strategic projects (where it can include long list of projects).

Background of Environment Impact Assessment and Public Hearing

Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth… these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women’s empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.

– Ban Ki-Moon

India issued the country’s first Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) notification in 1994, under the Environment (Protection) Act (EPA) of 1986. This was later replaced by a modified draft in 2006. In both forms, the EIA performs the important function of assessing and regulating the impact of new projects on the environment and empowers the public to participate in the process of approvals.

The Environmental Impact Assessment report, Environment Management Plan and details of public consultations have to be submitted by the project proponents to the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for appraisal of the project. The 2006 notification made clearance of a four-step procedure with screening, scoping, public consultation, and appraisal as mandatory steps to be followed by project proponents before clearance could be granted. After these four steps have been followed, the recommendation for acceptance or rejection of EC is sent to the regulatory authority, which is the MoEF for category ‘A’ and State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) for category B projects. Public consultation is the third step in the process of environmental clearance.

The enactment of this procedure was influenced by series of environmental problems which can be exemplified through the cases such as Bichri village where many villages, agricultural land water of the wells, surface water, cattle, and human beings were badly affected because of the industrial operation in the district of the Udaipur, state of Rajasthan and Tanneries case where public hearing before setting up of the factory was considered as an important measure. In the Samarth Trust Case, the Delhi high court had considered EIAs “a part of participatory justice in which the voice is given to the voiceless and it is like a jan sunwai, where the community is the jury”.

Sustainable Development

It is often argued that the process of environment clearance is leading to piling up of files and delays in projects. Developers complain that the EIA regime dampened the spirit of liberalization, leading to red-tapism and rent-seeking. This is the present state of implementation of existing mechanisms in Kerala, the administration took 1,049 days to clear the construction of the IT park project of M/s L&T Tech Park Ltd, instead of 105 days.

Amidst this, in the case of Vellore Citizens Welfare Forum vs UOI  it is held that companies are vital for the country’s development, but having regard to pollution, the doctrine of ‘Sustainable Development’ must be adopted by them as a balancing concept. If final clearance is granted after taking into account the environmental, social, and health concerns, then it can be said that the government is using this process as a tool to ensure sustainability which implies that the delay in clearance should be encountered while balancing it with the above concerns.

Reduced capacity to clearance and administrative inefficiency in granting clearance was often highlighted right from Sterlite to LG polymers’ case which has shown us the dampening spirit of the government towards already existing environmental laws.

Conclusion

A solution to development should also solve the problem of mounting environmental challenges. Introduction of environmental impact assessment is the hallmark of participatory governance in the country and dilution of this in any way hampers the primary aim of promoting a sustainable environment. Encountering bureaucratic inefficiency would always be a welcoming step but granting discretionary powers to the same authority would always raise concerns among the communities.

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