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The Supreme Court has allowed the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to divert 0.078 hectares of mangrove forest and fell 350 mangroves for the construction of the Mumbai-Vadodara Expressway.
The court, on April 24, 2023, also allowed NHAI to continue the construction work of the eight-lane expressway.
The apex court was responding to an appeal filed by the Bombay Environmental Action Group against a Bombay High Court judgement, which permitted the felling of 350 mangrove trees on February 2, 2023.
The Haryana government recently proposed a rejuvenation board to protect the Aravalli range. Following this, an environmental protection group submitted an application before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), demanding the inclusion of civil society groups in the proposed Aravalli Rejuvenation Board.
The board must be an autonomous, statutory authority with at least 50 per cent of its members from civil society groups working on the Aravallis, stated an application submitted by Aravalli Bachao Citizens Movement on April 27, 2023.
It also demanded the representation of rural communities living in the Aravalli foothills, independent ecologists, wildlife experts, water experts, geologists, climate scientists, legal experts and others.
The organisation complained about fresh cases of illegal mining in the Nuh district as well as Kadarpur and Baliawas villages in the Gurugram district.
The Supreme Court has permitted traditional coastal communities to remove the sand bars in the intertidal areas only through non-mechanical and manual methods, the apex court said on April 24, 2023.
Such removals should be carried out only in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, it added. The court was responding to an application that alleged sand mining in the Coastal Regulation Zones. The matter has been listed for a final hearing on September 14, 2023.