SHOULD WE STOP THE ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE PROCESS?
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been a celebrated tool, widely accepted across the world for sustainable development following a precautionary principle. But in its 50 years of existence, effectiveness of EIA has remained in question. Some believe that requirement of EIA has influenced the project concept, its siting, design and operations and they have few […]
HAVE YOU HEARD ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT 4.0?
Sure, my Professor Friend was not in a good mood yesterday. For strange reasons, only known to him, he was aggressive with me asking questions that I was not comfortable to answer. Our coffee conversations began with a question. “Dr Modak, have you heard about Environmental Impact Assessment 4.0?” “No Professor”. I responded. I could […]
Proactive ESIA helps in Environmentally Sound Wind Energy Development
Environmental Impacts of Wind Energy Wind energy projects neither release emissions into the air causing air pollution, nor consume large quantities of water and release effluents. Hence, they are largely considered benign of environmental impacts. However, various studies show that if wind energy facilities are located in biodiversity rich areas, especially avian, there can be […]
Have you heard about Environmental Impact Assessment 4.0?
Sure, my Professor Friend was not in a good mood yesterday. For strange reasons, only known to him, he was aggressive with me asking questions that I was not comfortable to answer. Our coffee conversations began with a question. “Dr Modak, have you heard about Environmental Impact Assessment 4.0?” “No Professor”. I responded. I could […]
Should we set up a National Environmental Monitoring Organization?
With the advances in monitoring devices especially drones, remote sensed imageries and sensors, internet of things (ioT) and apps on mobile phones, the amount of data in the world is growing exponentially. By 2020, Cisco estimates there will 40 zettabytes of data in existence. Some of this data will be raw, unstructured, which may be […]
Is It Worth Recycling?
It was a Sunday morning. We were sitting in my Professor friends study. I was enjoying my coffee. Professor lit his cigar and said “Dr Modak, I feel that today benefits of waste recycling are simply overrated. We should stop much of the kind of recycling we do and I mean it” I was shocked […]