Various youth groups from around the country, environmentalists, influencers have signed a letter that calls for the withdrawal of the Environmental Impact Assessment aka the EIA Draft 2020.

Environmental Impact Assessment or EIA is the process of studying or predicting the effect of a proposed industrial/infrastructural project on the environment. The existence of EIA prevents the proposed activity/project from being approved without proper oversight or taking adverse consequences into account. However, it has now been revised under the new notification and various groups and prominent newspaper publications have reported on the matter, highlighting the pros and cons of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Draft Notification 2020 aka EIA Draft 2020. Influencers, Content Creators, photographers and poets have used the power of social media and their talent to highlight the need for the withdrawal of the draft.

Check out what EIA Draft 2020 really is and its implications: 

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The draft EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) notification 2020 of India will be passed in just 3 days. It has been published in only English & Hindi – this ensures that a large part of the population is completely unaware of the implications of EIA 2020 on their lives and livelihoods. ◽ ⁣ ⁣ ⭕ This tool is used to identify environmental, social and economic impacts of industrial/ corporate projects – the draft EIA 2020 is conveniently being diluted during these times of corona.⁣ ⁣ ❌ It ensures that many projects will not require any public consultations – not even of the indigenous people who will be directly affected. ⁣ ⁣ ❌ The Post Facto approval ensures that if a project starts illegally the government will let it pass to favour "development". ⁣ ⁣ ❌ "Strategic projects" will be passed irrespective of the potential project site being the home of endangered species – this is again to boost the so called "development" of the country. ⁣ ⁣ The toolkit in our bio will lead you to everything you need to know about this issue. We have 3 days until this will get passed. Please act now! ⁣ ⁣ #withdrawdrafteia2020 #ActNow

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You can block websites. You can't block an idea whose time has come. What do we want? #WithdrawDraftEIA2020 When do we want it? NOW! #StreetStrikeForEIA @youthforclimateindia People’s interests or concerns of #protection of #environment are not its concerns. It not only supersedes the EIA 2006 but also seeks to circumvent various rulings made by the National #Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court! We can do tiny things to serve the environment. But #laws and #policies can do wonders if they're moulded to bring environment, #health and livelihood first. #ecology #trees #forest #forests #LetIndiaBreathe @fridays4future.ghy_ @fridaysforfuture.india @youth4swaraj @xrebellionind @climatesaveindia @tribaltadka

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Content Creators have also been sharing their POV and expressing dissent towards the same:

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The new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) draft is the most dangerous thing. It will bring nothing but doom. Please read more about what the government has done and changed in this draft and it’s huge and unfortunate impacts. will be sharing some important link on my stories today. Furthermore please help with doing your bit by asking the government to withdraw the draft, deadline is 30th June. You can either participate in the campaign led by @letindiabreathe.in where you have to send an email to the ministry. The email is prepared by them all you have to do it just add your name and details to it and send. ( LINK IN BIO) Or you can also directly send an email to Minister of Environment, Mr Shree Prakash Javadekar at pjavadekar@gmail.com

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Hi India, we have exactly 8 more days to send in our objections and call for the Withdrawal of EIA 2020. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably seen countless posts and videos of dissent, because as citizens of this democracy, we have a constitutional right to comment on the problematic new Draft of the Environment Impact Assessment norms. I made this video to help amplify, and give you a simplified understanding of the 83 page Draft, so you can get a quick look at why environmentalists and experts are so deeply concerned by it. I've tried to keep away from the jargon, and give you a short, crisp and easy synopsis of some of the key points of contention, and why WE, (internet-using, English and Hindi speaking folks) need to send out that objection email ASAP. Also please do Share this video and other pieces of communication on #WithdrawEIA2020 , so we can get more people to send in that email! I hope this helps you understand it and gets you curious to read up more and take action. The Draft is up on the internet, and multiple posters, podcasts, videos and lives have summarised the key problem points, because this is the final mile and we Must amplify and get more people to send that email! LINK IN BIO for the ready-made email draft. (Change a few words in the subject and body to avoid spam bounce-backs) Email to eia2020-moefcc@gov.in Huge shoutout to @letindiabreathe.in and @fridaysforfuture.india for not only relentlessly fighting the good fight, but also for supporting me through the making of this video, verifying my research and running it past lawyers as well. More shoutouts to @mirchi_suchi @sonali.jain @radxbone @dollysingh @shivya @abhiandniyu for fighting the good fight and encouraging more people to raise their voices against EIA2020. 8 days to go. Let's do this! #WithdrawEIA2020 #ScrapEIA2020

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The draft Environment Impact Assesment – EIA is deeply problematic and strips us of our constitutional rights and violates environmental laws. We are in a climate emergency. Don't let the elected fool you. Stay informed. I will soon put out a discussion between Mr. Vishal Sinha, a Supreme Court advocate on this issue and Mr. Yuvan, a prominent environmental activist . @vishal0001 @a_naturalists_column also @or.junn thank you as usual for editing it 💞 Let's flatten the misinformation curve and send in your objections by August 11th! Link for sending objections in my Bio. #eia2020 #moefcc #environmentministry #PrakashJavadekar #environmentconservation #dontdiluteeia #savenature #saynotoeia2020 #governmentofindia #wwfindia #thevibe

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We have four days in our hands to do our duty. Use a simple tool in our capacity to send an email to the @moefccgoi that please do not dilute the EIA process and instead strengthen it. ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ You will find the link to the draft email in my bio given by @letindiabreathe.in 🙌🏾 ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀ It is high time we do not let anybody misuse their powers and take away our rights to public participation in the process of saving our environment, forests, coasts, oceans, wildlife, humans, marinelife, birds, wetlands, mangroves, ghats, mountains, skies and lives. ⠀⠀⠀ ————– Sources: https://india.mongabay.com/2020/05/despite-covid-lockdown-environment-ministrys-expert-panels-race-to-clear-projects/ https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/javadekar-takes-charge-as-union-minister-of-heavy-industries-and-public-enterprises/articleshow/72038905.cms?from=mdr ————- ⠀⠀⠀ #WithdrawDraftEIA2020 #draftEIA2020 #LetIndiaBreathe #SaveIndia #ClimateChange #SystemChange #ClimateAction

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A year ago today, I sat outside Ministry of environment, forest and climate change all alone with a placard that said "Declare climate emergency". I was shooed away by the police the next day. The next time we striked outside the same place we were 2 thousand strong. Our demands had increased by then. This strike followed with multiple other strikes and our voices were never heard. A year later, we stand outside the same place again, asking @moefccgoi to withdraw EIA 2020. Current EIA: Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) can be defined, simply, as the study made to predict the effect of a proposed activity or project on the environment. Often used as a decision making tool while granting environmental clearance to any project, EIA compares various alternatives for a project and seeks to identify which one represents the best combination of economic and environmental costs and benefits. For example, if a company wants to build a dam on a particular river, the EIA would consider how the building of the dam would affect the environment, including the people living in the area and closeby EIA 2020 (the draft proposed) will change all of this. There won't be any public hearings. This shall lead to industries going ahead with projects without an environmental clearance, with environmental clearance being relegated to the stature of an afterthought.  the draft notification exempts many projects from requiring any public consultations for approval at all. For instance, the new draft EIA notification allows the central government to categorise any project it wishes as having “strategic considerations” and therefore exclude it from the process of public hearing for getting environmental clearance.  And all this is just the tip on the iceberg. There's more to the new EIA draft that one should read about. All we can do is send letters, emails to Mr. Prakash Javadekar and Ministry of environment asking them to withdraw new draft. Our ecology is already in danger, it'll create risks for everyone even more. Think about it. Read about it. Act on it. We have till August 11, 2020.

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Ten days to go to send in your suggestions/objections to #DraftEIA2020 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Here is a small time of the “Post Facto Approval“ clause that has been an agenda for many years by the Environment Ministry but has been struck down by courts to save our environment. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This draft EIA 2020 has so many provisions for industries than environment😕 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ EIA in India was brought after the Bhopal Tragedy took place to prevent from tragedies and irreparable damage from occuring, so how is it that something like an approval should be given to an industry/project after it has started the project without assessing anything before hand? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ A video on this coming soon, but if anyone can help in translating this in more languages that would be great! 🙂 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Thanks to @vishal0001 for helping me out with this one. ✊🏽 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Sources for this post will be in the link in bio. 👋🏾 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀#withdraweia2020 #WithdrawDraftEIA2020 #SaveEIA #SystemChangeWillStopClimateChange #ClimateChange

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