New Delhi, April 7 The Ministry of Environment said on Monday that project proponents can now access baseline environmental data, which forms the foundation of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies, on the PARIVESH portal.
The data provides a comprehensive understanding of the existing environmental conditions of the project area before any activity commences and enables identification of potential impacts arising from the proposed project.
"Currently, project proponents either rely on offline processes by collating data from multiple Central and State Government agencies and/or undertake primary data collection using monitoring equipment, which entails significant time and resource investment," said the Ministry of Environment in a notification.
Access to baseline environmental data on the PARIVESH portal aims to simplify and streamline this process.
The use of the data is voluntary and optional, and project proponents may, at their discretion, continue to generate or procure baseline environmental data independently in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements, said the ministry.
Launched on August 8, 2018, PARIVESH (Pro Active and Responsive Facilitation by Interactive and Virtuous Environmental Single-window Hub) is a single window portal for environment clearance, forest clearance, wildlife and coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearances.
Subsequently, the Ministry of Environment introduced PARIVESH 2.0 to help project proponents track their environment clearance applications.