Environmental Impact Assessment is crucial to implementation of major infrastructure projects in India, including highways and dams. The aspect of generating viable and feasible alternatives relating to adoption of new technologies, exclusion of sites for implementing projects, calculating the greenhouse gases emissions of the projects during its life cycle, commissioning and decommissioning of mega dams are not part of the EIA reports prepared by authorities who are involved in granting approvals for such projects. Where does the solution for such intricate problems lie in our domestic legislation? The answer could be the manner in which the EIA report by itself is prepared and the blatant absence of alternatives to the project including the 'no-action' alternatives. The Working paper cited here discusses at length citing judicial law on alternatives assessment under National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and how alternatives are crucial to mitigating climate change impacts.
The `No-Alternative' Scenario in the Alternative Analysis of NEPA