Letter by Shri E A S Sarma, Former Secretary to the Government of India to the Minister of Environment, Forests & Climate Change
09/08/2026
To
Shri Bhupender Yadav
Minister
Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC)
Dear Shri Bupendra Yadav,
While responding to a Parliament Question on data centres, you have informed the Rajya Sabha on 6-8-2026 (Unstarred Question No. 2136) that “Data Centres do not, per se, require Environmental Clearance (EC) under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, as amended. However, AI Data Centres proposed as part of a “Building and Construction Project” under Item 8(a), i.e. built up area exceeding 20,000 sq. m or a “Township and Area Development Project” i.e. covering an area ≥ 50 ha and /or built up area ≥ 1,50,000 sq. m under Item 8(b) of the schedule to the EIA Notification, 2006 require prior EC. The EC for such a building project is granted by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) at the State/UT level” (https://sansad.in/getFile/annex/271/AU2136_BdORz6.pdf?source=pqars)
Evidently, your Ministry is either blissfully ignorant of the ongoing uproar worldwide about the disastrous environmental impacts of AI/ Data Centres in the USA and elsewhere, or your Ministry, in its usual display of brazen crony capitalism, has deliberately chosen to let off data centres from clearances, at the cost of public interest.
It has become abundantly clear now that foreign IT companies like Google, faced with stiff opposition in their countries, are quickly shifting operations to India, because environmental regulation in India are fragile, and political leaders at the Centre and in the States are more than willing to offer the concessions they demand.
On 6-6-2026, I had written to you, specifically pointing out that AI/ Data Centres, especially Hyperscale Data Centres (1 GW and above) consume enormous quantities of electricity and water, in addition to causing pollution (https://countercurrents.org/2026/06/ai-data-centres-and-environmental-justice-e-a-s-sarma-urges-scrutiny-of-projects-amid-ecological-and-human-rights-concerns/)
Data Centres are not mere “buildings”. They are electricity and water guzzlers. They are veritable “heat islands” that increase the ambient temperature in their surroundings. In the specific case of the Google-Raiden-Adani Data-Centre complex of 2.5 GW in and around Visakhapatnam, it has resulted in appropriation of dalits’ lands, their only source of livelihood, appropriation of precious forest land in violation of the Forest (Conservation) Act and in violation of the well-known Godavarman judgement of the apex court. It has also violated the Eco-sensitive Zone notification issued by your Ministry for the Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary. That data-centre complex is located in a water-scarce region and it will accentuate the already precarious water situation for the people. To say that such data centres need no environment clearance is hilarious.
I have explained the environmental and human rights infringements in the case of Hyperscale Data Centres in my article, “AI Data Centres and Environmental Justice” (https://countercurrents.org/2026/06/ai-data-centres-and-environmental-justice-e-a-s-sarma-urges-scrutiny-of-projects-amid-ecological-and-human-rights-concerns/)
At the cost of repetition, let me invite your Ministry’s attention to the kind of environmental havoc that a 1 GW Hyperscale Data Centre causes. It is as follows:
|
Electricity |
11.4 TWH per year |
|
Water |
8.1 billion litres per year |
|
Carbon |
8.1 billion tonnes |
|
Land |
> 600 acres |
Evidently, neither you nor any of the officers of your Ministry has a first-hand knowledge of what a Hyperscale Data Centre implies. I wish you had the sensitivity to depute your officers to Visakhapatnam to see the kind of damage they have already caused to forests and environment, before deciding that Hyperscale Data Centres do not require environment clearance and that approvals under the Environment (Protection) Act could be given summarily by pliant State authorities.
Mr Bhupender Yadav, the picture below (https://www.sakshi.com/telugu-news/andhra-pradesh/uncontrolled-excavations-simhachalam-hill-name-data-center-2787134) shows how the Vizag Hyperscale Data Centre has already ravaged a lush green forest stretch on the slopes of the Simhachalam hill range, in a brazen violation of the Forest (Conservation )
Does it not run counter to what Adharva Veda (12.1.62) says, “O Mother earth, Let Thy bosom be free From sickness and decay. May we through long life Be active and vigilant And serve Thee with devotion.” I suppose, for your government, business-friedliness supercedes Vedic maxims! Apparently, you have no intention to be vigilant when corporate interests prevail.
Are you aware that AP’s political leadership was so business-friendly and in such an undue haste to clear the Vizag data centre complex that they have forced the authorities to dispense with the mandatory public consultation process, ignoring the interests of the very people who have voted them to power?
Is it not laughable that your Ministry should exempt such toxic Hyperscale Data Centres from rigorous environmental impact appraisal, merely to please private corporate entities, that too foreign private companies like Google?
It is the Parliament that has enacted laws such as the Environment (Protection) Act and the Forest (Conservation) Act. They have been introduced in pursuance of the obligation cast on the government under Article 48A. Is it not ironic that your Ministry should ignore its primary responsibility of conserving the environment and inform that very same Parliament that Hyperscale Data Centres do not require environment clearance?
Evidently, your Ministry has not cared to draw lessons from what experts across the globe have been saying about Hyperscale Data Centres. Has your Ministry studied, for example, a UN agency’s report, “Environmental Cost of AI’s Energy Use: Carbon, Water and Land Footprints” (https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:10647/UNU-INWEH-Report-The_Env_Cost_of_AI-2026.pdf)?
Are you not aware that local communities are vehemently opposing the setting up of Hyperscale Data Centres in the USA? Are you aware that around 14 States in the USA are considering imposing moratorium on such Data Centres, while New York has already imposed a ban? It may not be mere coincidence that, while your Ministry has informed the Parliament that data centres do not need environmental clearance, your colleague, the Finance Minister had also informed the Parliament earlier, in her Budget speech, that “foreign data centres” would be entitled to a “tax-holiday” till 2047. The only inference that one can draw from such announcements is that your government’s decisions are singularly meant to promote private business interests, not the public interest.
Keeping in view the above, on behalf of all those likely to be affected by Hyperscale Data Centres, I demand that your Ministry, recognises the far-reaching environmental implications of data centres and, if necessary, amends the existing EIA regulations to put in place a robust set of environmental norms and regulations that mandate all data centre projects to be subject to a rigorous environmental impact appraisal procedure and a transparent public consultation process at the national level, before decisions on them are taken.
I suggest that your Ministry straightaway imposes a moratorium on further work on data centres.
Regards,
Yours sincerely,
E A S Sarma
Former Secretary to the Government of India
Visakhapatnam