Given how environmental degradation and rehabilitation of displaced people have become so important, you would think that governments at the centre and in the states would be serious about dealing with these complex issues, deliberating at length about environment clearances and the rehabilitation packages relating to various projects. Yet, the evidence available suggests that the process is as casual and routine-driven as it can be. As Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment pointed out in her column in this newspaper yesterday, the environmental impact assessment report for a bauxite mine in south Goa did not even have a map that identified local habitations and agricultural fields that would be affected by the project. In the case of the Rs 12,500 crore Polavaram dam project, the ministry of environment and forests gave its clearance without even holding public hearings on the environmental impact assessment in either Chhattisgarh or Orissa, the two states most affected by the project. Indeed, while quashing the ministry's order, the National Environmental Appellate Authority (acting in this manner for the first time in a decade) said, "It's evident that no public hearing was conducted in the affected areas of Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Neither did the affected persons have any access to the executive summary of the EIA