Question 1

The government is entirely financially responsible for cleaning up historically polluted industrial lands under these new rules.

Accepted Answer

The rules explicitly implement the 'polluter pays' principle, making the responsible entities bear the full cost of remediation. The government only steps in to share costs (Centre and State) for 'orphan sites' where the polluter is untraceable or bankrupt.

Question 2

The rules cover all forms of land and water contamination in India, including mining waste and nuclear sites.

Accepted Answer

The rules have strict exclusions: they do not apply to radioactive waste, mining operations, or marine oil pollution.

Question 3

Consider the following statements regarding the Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules, 2025:
1. The rules were notified under the provisions of the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules, 2016.
2. District Administrations are required to submit half-yearly reports on suspected contaminated sites to the designated authorities.
3. Sites contaminated by radioactive waste and marine oil spills are excluded from the purview of these rules.
How many of the above statements are correct?

Accepted Answer

(b) Only two — Statement 1 is incorrect: The 2025 Rules were notified directly under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, not the Hazardous Waste Rules of 2016 (though they use the 189 chemicals listed in the 2016 rules as a benchmark). Statement 2 is correct: District Administrations must submit half-yearly reports. Statement 3 is correct: Radioactive waste, mining operations, and marine oil spills are explicitly excluded.

Question 4

Match List I (Key provision/concept in the 2025 Rules) with List II (Associated detail/timeline):
List I
A. Preliminary Assessment
B. Pollutant Benchmark
C. Orphan Sites
D. Identification of Polluter

List II
1. Cost-sharing between Centre and States
2. Must be completed by SPCB within 90 days of listing
3. State Board must complete within 90 days after detailed survey
4. Exceeding safe limits of 189 listed hazardous chemicals

Select the correct answer using the code given below:

Accepted Answer

(a) A-2, B-4, C-1, D-3 — A matches 2: Preliminary assessment must be completed within 90 days. B matches 4: The benchmark for contamination is the 189 chemicals from the 2016 Rules. C matches 1: Orphan sites (untraceable polluters) are managed via Centre-State cost-sharing. D matches 3: SPCBs have 90 days to identify the polluter after a site is confirmed contaminated.

Question 5

Assertion (A): The Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules, 2025 do not apply to land degraded by uranium mining and marine oil spills.
Reason (R): The 2025 Rules are designed exclusively for chemical contamination, while radioactive materials and marine pollution are governed by independent statutory frameworks like the Atomic Energy Act and specific maritime laws.
Select the correct answer:

Accepted Answer

(a) Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A — Assertion (A) is true as the rules explicitly exclude radioactive waste, mining operations, and marine oil pollution. Reason (R) is true and correctly explains A, because these sectors already possess dedicated legislative and regulatory mechanisms to handle their specific environmental impacts, making redundant inclusion in the 2025 EPA rules unnecessary.