Which schedule of the Environment Protection Act, (1986) lists industries that require mandatory environment clearance ?
Schedule-I
The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 is an umbrella statute. It does not itself carry a list of industries needing clearance; instead Section 3 empowers the Central Government to take all measures necessary to protect and improve the environment, and the operative lists are issued as rules and notifications made under that power.
The instrument that actually carries the list is the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, first issued in 1994 and replaced by the EIA Notification of 2006, both framed under the 1986 Act. In each of them the Schedule attached to the notification enumerates the projects and activities that require prior environmental clearance before they may be set up or expanded. The 2006 notification further divides those entries into Category A, cleared at the Centre, and Category B, cleared by the State authority.
Within the numbering scheme these lists are read as Schedule-I, which is why that is the option recorded. Schedule-I also appears in the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 as the schedule setting industry-wise emission and effluent standards, so it is consistently the schedule that carries the industry lists.
Schedules II, III and IV do not carry any list of industries requiring clearance.
Hence the answer recorded is Schedule-I.
