The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006 is a subordinate legislative instrument issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (now MoEFCC) on September 14, 2006, under Section 3 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. It mandates that certain listed development projects must obtain a prior Environmental Clearance (EC) before they can commence. The Notification replaced the earlier EIA Notification of January 27, 1994, which had first made environmental clearance mandatory for a smaller list of 29 project categories. The problem it solved was the need for a more transparent, decentralized, and efficient regulatory mechanism to integrate environmental concerns into the developmental process.
The core mechanism of the Notification is the categorization of projects based on their potential impact. Category 'A' projects are high-impact, large-scale projects that require mandatory EC and are appraised at the national level by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Category 'B' projects are appraised at the state level by the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and the State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC). Category B is further divided into B1 (requiring a full EIA) and B2 (not requiring a full EIA). The process for obtaining EC generally involves four stages: Screening (only for Category B), Scoping, Public Consultation, and Appraisal.
The Notification connects directly to the parent legislation, the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and is rooted in the constitutional provisions of Article 48A and Article 51A(g). It must be distinguished from other clearances, such as forest clearance under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, and regulations under the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification. The Notification has been amended repeatedly since its inception. A significant recent change includes the introduction of the Standing Authority on Environment Impact Assessment (SAEIA) and the Standing Committee on Environment Impact Appraisal (SCEIA) in July 2026 to prevent delays when SEIAA or SEAC are non-functional. The fundamental structure of project categorization and the four-stage process, however, has remained the operative regime.