Environmental auditing programme in India

The concept of environmental auditing in industrial units in India was formally introduced in March 1992 with the overall objective of minimising consumption of resources and promoting use of clean technologies in industrial production to minimise generation of wastes. A series of discussions were held among the concerned regulatory agencies before and after making environmental auditing and submission of Annual Environmental Statements, a mandatory requirement for the industries. This followed organisation of a number of workshops, seminars and training programmes all over the country by different agencies dealing with environment protection, conducting of audit studies in 125 selected polluting industries in the country by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi, and a number of other activities. The present paper gives the details of the activities before and after the introduction of this requirement in the country. The aspects covered include, (i) the evolution of the concept, (ii) the history of the introduction of the scheme in the country and the organisational structure, (iii) the mandatory requirement and its applicability, (iv) the implementing agencies and their responsibilities, (v) summary of the training programmes/workshops organised in the country, (vi) case studies conducted by CPCB in selected polluting industries and the major findings, (vii) development of guidelines for conducting environmental audit in different categories of polluting industries, and (viii) the current status of the scheme and plans for its effective implementation.