Which Environmental Permissions Does My Business Need?

Most businesses that make, build, pack or import goods in India need at least one environmental permission, and many need four or five. A factory needs consent to establish (CTE) before construction and consent to operate (CTO) before production. Large projects and buildings of 20,000 sq m and above need environmental clearance (EC). Drawing groundwater usually needs a NOC. Brand owners and importers of plastic packaging, electronics and batteries need EPR registration with the CPCB. If a permission is refused, there is an appeal. If it is delayed, there is a way to push it.

This page is the overview. It tells you which permissions apply to your kind of business, who grants each one, and what to do when the file gets stuck or comes back refused. Where a topic needs more depth, we point you to the detailed guide, such as the difference between CTE and CTO or EC for building projects.

We start with the question owners ask us most often: what to do when the pollution board sits on a consent file or refuses it.

The essentials

My consent to establish or operate was refused or is delayed. What can I do?

Start by finding out exactly where the file is. Log in to the board's online consent system and read the status and every remark. In most delayed files, the board raised a query weeks ago, nobody noticed, and the file sits as 'pending with applicant'. If there is a query, answer it fully, point by point, with documents, and keep proof of the upload date.

If there is no query and the file has simply crossed the board's own timeline, write to the regional officer and then to the Member Secretary, quoting the application number, the date of filing, the fee paid and the inspection date if one took place. Ask for a decision or a written list of deficiencies. A dated reminder on the file does more than repeated visits, because it builds a record. An RTI application for the file notings and inspection report also helps; the reply is due within 30 days.

Do not assume that silence means yes. Deemed consent exists only where the statute or a state's rules expressly provide for it, in the stated situation, and boards read such provisions narrowly. Check the current rule for your state and category before relying on it. Owners who 'went ahead on deemed consent' often end up defending a closure notice.

If the consent is refused, or granted with conditions you cannot live with, the first appeal lies to the state appellate authority under section 28 of the Water Act and section 31 of the Air Act, within 30 days. Read the refusal order closely first. If it cites a prohibited zone, the appeal is a serious fight. If it cites a missing document or a weak treatment design, a fresh application with the gap fixed is usually faster. We cover the process on our appellate authority page.

If the appellate authority also rules against you, the next appeal goes to the National Green Tribunal under section 16 of the NGT Act, within 30 days of the order being communicated (the NGT can allow up to 60 more days for sufficient cause). Through all of this, one rule does not change: do not start construction without CTE and do not run the unit without CTO. A pending appeal is not permission.

Environmental permissions: who needs them, who grants them, which law

This is the master list. Most businesses need only some of these, and the next sections explain how to tell which.

Fire NOC, building plan sanction and factory licence sit outside environmental law, but boards often ask for them, so keep them ready.

Is my unit in the red, orange, green or white category?

Your category comes from the CPCB's list of industrial sectors, which each state board adopts with its own tweaks. The colour reflects how polluting your process is, not how big your unit is. A small electroplating shop can be red while a large garment stitching unit may be green or white. Look up your exact process, not your trade name, in the current list.

Red category units (many chemical, pharmaceutical, dyeing and tannery processes, for example) face the strictest scrutiny, shorter consent periods and more inspections, and are generally kept out of residential and sensitive areas. Orange sits in the middle; green gets lighter treatment and longer validity. White category units are exempt from consent altogether, though they may still need to inform the board, and they still have to follow the law on noise, waste and water use.

Two mistakes come up again and again. The first is describing the process loosely to land in a lighter category. Inspectors look at the machinery and raw material, not the label. The second is adding a process (say, a small painting or plating line) without realising it pushes the whole unit into a higher category. That needs fresh consent, not just a renewal.

The consent rules have also been changing. Amendments and notifications in 2024 and 2025 altered some requirements, including exemptions. Do not rely on what a neighbouring unit did three years ago: check the current notification and your board's latest office orders before you file. Our consent to establish page explains the filing. Advocate B.K. Singh's usual advice to a new unit is to settle its category in writing with the board before buying machinery, because a wrong assumption about the category is the most expensive mistake to undo later.

Do I need EC as well as consent?

Yes, if your project is listed, and EC does not replace consent. Environmental clearance under the EIA Notification 2006 is a project-level approval decided before work starts; consent is the pollution board's permission to build and run a source of pollution. The board will usually want to see the EC before it grants CTE.

EC applies to the projects listed in the Schedule to the EIA Notification: mining, power, large industrial and infrastructure projects among them, with thresholds that decide whether the project is category A (decided by the Union environment ministry) or category B (decided by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, the SEIAA). For builders, the line that matters is 20,000 sq m of built-up area. At and above it, the project needs prior EC, generally from the SEIAA. Townships and area development projects of 1,50,000 sq m and above fall in a higher category.

The word 'prior' matters. The Supreme Court in Alembic Pharmaceuticals v Rohit Prajapati (2020) came down hard on ex post facto EC, and the law on regularising projects that started without EC has shifted in later decisions. If your project has already started without EC, get advice on the current position before you file anything, because the wrong application can amount to an admission. Our environmental clearance page covers the process.

Do I need a groundwater NOC? Who is exempt?

If your business draws groundwater through a borewell or tubewell for industrial, infrastructure, mining or bulk supply use, you almost certainly need a NOC. The CGWA guidelines of 2020 (as amended) cover most such users across the country. Packaged water units, construction sites, hotels, malls, group housing and many factories fall in this net.

Individual domestic users, agricultural users and certain small users are exempt under the CGWA guidelines. The exact limits and conditions for 'small' depend on the current version of the guidelines and on where you are, so read our groundwater NOC exemption guide before you assume you are outside it.

Several states run their own groundwater authority with their own Act or rules, and in those states the NOC usually comes from the state body, not the CGWA. Where the area is classified as over-exploited or critical, the conditions get much tighter: water audits, metering with telemetry, recharge structures and sometimes outright refusal for new industrial use. A plot in an over-exploited block may be cheap for a reason. Our groundwater NOC page explains the application and renewal.

Do I need EPR registration for plastic, e-waste or batteries? What are the targets?

You need EPR registration if you put certain products or packaging on the Indian market, whether or not you manufacture anything yourself. EPR makes the producer, importer or brand owner answer for the waste their product becomes. You register on the CPCB's centralised portal and file returns on it every year.

Under the Plastic Waste Management Rules and the EPR guidelines of 2022, the obligation falls on producers, importers and brand owners (PIBOs). If you sell anything in plastic packaging under your own brand, you are a brand owner, even if a contract manufacturer packs it. Importers of goods in plastic packaging are covered too. Our guide on who needs plastic EPR goes through the edge cases.

The E-Waste (Management) Rules 2022 apply to manufacturers, producers, importers, refurbishers and recyclers of the listed electrical and electronic equipment. Importers, who see themselves as traders, are most often caught out. See our e-waste EPR guide for importers. The Battery Waste Management Rules 2022 cover producers and importers of batteries, including batteries that come fitted in vehicles, inverters and devices, which brings EV makers and equipment importers in. Our battery EPR page covers that.

Targets under all three rules are set as percentages of what you place on the market, and they rise year by year. We do not quote the numbers here because they differ by product and year and are revised. The practical point is that you meet them by buying EPR certificates from registered recyclers or processors, or by running your own collection system, and that unmet targets attract environmental compensation. Keep your sales and import data clean, because returns are checked.

Hazardous waste, bio-medical waste and tree felling: the ones people forget

Hazardous waste authorisation is needed by more units than owners realise. Used oil from a DG set or machinery, spent solvents, paint sludge, ETP sludge and empty chemical drums are hazardous waste under the Hazardous Waste Rules 2016. If you generate, store or send them out, you need authorisation from the state board, a proper storage area, manifests for every consignment and annual returns. Our hazardous waste authorisation page has details.

Bio-medical waste authorisation applies to every hospital, nursing home, clinic, dental practice, pathology lab and blood bank that generates such waste, and to common treatment facilities. Small clinics often assume it is only for hospitals. It is not.

Tree felling permission is the one that stops building projects in their tracks. Cutting or transplanting trees on a site, even private land, usually needs permission from the tree officer or forest department under the state's tree protection law, often with compensatory planting or a deposit. Forest land needs separate forest clearance. Get the tree survey done before you finalise the layout.

Which permissions usually apply to you

A first cut by type of business. Your actual list depends on process, size and location.

Permissions checklist before you start a unit

Work through this before you sign the lease. Dropping a site now is far cheaper than fighting a refusal later.

Documents to keep ready

Boards ask for much the same set across states. For a fuller list see documents for consent to operate.

What happens if I operate without permission?

Three things can happen, often together: a monetary penalty, closure, and environmental compensation. After the Jan Vishwas (Amendment of Provisions) Act 2023 and the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Amendment Act 2024, many violations under the Water Act, Air Act and EP Act that used to be criminal offences now carry monetary penalties decided by an adjudicating officer. Our guide on penalty for running without CTO explains the process.

Closure is the bigger worry for most owners. Under section 33A of the Water Act, section 31A of the Air Act and section 5 of the EP Act, the board can order closure, prohibit operation or direct the electricity and water supply to be cut. A show-cause notice usually comes first, and a documented reply at that stage matters, as our guide on closure notice options explains. Boards do revoke closure once compliance is shown, often with conditions or a bank guarantee, but lost weeks of production cost more than the consent.

Environmental compensation is calculated using the CPCB's formula, which multiplies factors such as a pollution index for your industry category, the number of days of violation, the size of the unit and its location. Every day of running without consent adds to the figure. The NGT applies the polluter pays principle, and it does not treat 'the application was pending' as an excuse for running without consent. If you have a notice, get it read before you reply, and apply for consent at once.

Mistakes we see most often

• Starting on a pending file. An application is not a consent, and neither is a fee receipt or an inspection.
• Missing portal queries. Most 'delayed' files are waiting for the applicant's reply, not the board's decision.
• Expanding without fresh consent. More production, a new product line or an extra boiler needs fresh CTE, not just a CTO renewal.
• Appealing a fixable refusal. If the refusal is about a missing document, reapplying is usually faster than an appeal.
• Treating EPR as optional for traders. Importers and brand owners are covered even if they never touch a machine.