ENVIRONMENTAL AUDIT

Audit is an important Management Information System(MIS) tool, on which many management decisions are dependent. The purpose of any audit is to acquire information and provide additional discipline on the internal processes to validate proper functioning of the specific system.
Environmental Audit is a very broad term as ‘environment’ in itself comprises of biotic and abiotic components. Environment includes water, air and land and the inter-relationship which exist among and between water, air and land and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro organism and property. Environmental Audit, therefore, is an independent evaluation of (i) Policy and Principles (ii) Systems (iii) Procedures (iv) Practices and (v) performances of elements of an industry relating to environment. Environmental is a management tool comprising a systematic, documented, periodic, and objective evaluation of how well environmental organization, management and equipment are performing with the aim of helping to safeguard the environemntby: (1) Facilitating management control of environmental practices: (ii) Assessing compliance with company policies, which would include meeting regulatory requirements. This paper tries to study the meaning of environmental audit its importance and the environmental audit in India.