Only accredited agencies can do EIA: Javadekar

CHENNAI: Only accredited agencies will be allowed to do Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) and there will be more such agencies which can do the EIA, Union Environment and Forests Minister Prakash Javadekar said here today.

"Only accredited agencies will be allowed and there will be more number of accredited agencies which can do Environment Impact Assessment (EIA)," he told reporters here.

Asked on the EIA done by Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History for a Rs 1,500 crore Neutrino Observatory project in Tamil Nadu, which is not accredited by agencies like Quality Council of India, he said "I will have to check, I do not know the facts, the file has not come to me."

He, however, said the government would take cognisance of EIA done only by recognised institutes, those accredited by the QCI.

"Only accredited bodies will do it...many went to court, individuals also," he said, adding that a clarificatory notification will be issued in this regard.

"We will issue clarificatory notification to avoid this kind of situation, with proper notification and explanation we will put all facts before court and sooner we will have a system where only accredited agencies will be allowed and there will be more number of accredited agencies which can do EIA," he said.

On marsh lands, he said "it will be protected and nurtured and more migratory birds will come."

To a query on action against some green NGO's, he said "we are taking all NGOs on board who are on field and there are thousands of them."