Residential Training Programme on Environmental Impact Assessment: A Citizen’s Toolkit

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) announces its revamped 3-day focused course on Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). This flagship training programme has been redesigned to familiarize citizens, civil society groups, researchers, and young professionals with the core processes of EIA - with the intention of building an informed citizen base that can meaningfully engage with environmental decision-making and contribute to improved transparency and accountability in India’s clearance system.

This training aims to demystify the EIA system and build strong foundational skills that enable participants to understand project-level assessments, examine environmental data, track clearances, and engage effectively in public consultation and monitoring.

Training Components

Baseline Data Collection Fundamentals

• Developing the baseline data for air quality, water, ecology and biodiversity.
• Data interpretation, validation and its use

Impact Identification and Assessment

• Understanding how environmental impacts are identified and screened.
• Methods to evaluate impact significance and its use to shape project management and monitoring

Public Participation in Environmental Clearances

• How citizens can access project documents, monitor clearance stages, and use tools to track compliance.
• Creative use of satellite data for basic understanding of land use patterns changes, project footprints, and temporal changes.

Judicial Landscape of EIA in India

• Regulatory requirements for Environmental Clearance (EC)
• Examples of legal cases that influenced EIA regime: environmental governance, strengthened due diligence and expanded public participation rights. 

Key take-aways

• Methodology and process for EIA and EC
• Methods of data validation for checking the quality, consistency, and completeness of EIA submissions.
• Framework for dealing with violations, including compensation mechanisms and recent amendments that determine how non-compliance is handled.
• Ways to track compliance and monitor project footprints.

Course Co-Ordinator

Ahana Ghosh
Email: ahana.ghosh@cseindia.org
Phone: 9211253343