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The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on October 14, 2025, directed the Superintendent of Police in Palamu to file information on the action taken to curb illegal stone mining in the Jharkhand district.
The tribunal directed the official to give complete information on the total number of complaints received by the police about illegal stone mining since April 2024, total number of FIRs registered, action taken for seizure of vehicles and illegally mined stone, arrests and recoveries made as well as number of charge sheets filed.
The court also directed submission of information on the number of cases in which investigation is pending, time likely to be taken in completion of investigation and steps taken for preventing illegal mining of stone including installation of cameras, setting up of check posts and permitting transportation of mined material including stone through GPS fitted vehicles.
The NGT’s eastern bench directed the Palamu district magistrate to file an additional response. It should have information in tabulate format with respect to each of the remedial measures required to be taken for preventing illegal mining as per Enforcement and Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, 2020, the details of raids conducted by District Task Force and also minutes of the meeting of the District Task Force since April 2024.
The bench directed Palamu’s district mining officer to file additional response regarding terms and conditions imposed on the stone crushers regarding disclosure of source of supply of the raw material from mining lease holders, filing of reports by the stone crushers and audit of the same by the Mining Department, violations found and action taken against each of the stone crushers in respect of the violations. The case has been listed for further hearing on December 17, 2025.
The NGT on October 14, 2025, directed the district magistrate and collector of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal to file a report on action taken to free a water body in Makhalhati village of encroachment and garbage.
A fact-finding committee, constituted on the orders of the NGT, stated in its report that the water body is indeed recorded as a Pukur in revenue records. Water hyacinth had engulfed the pond and a pile of garbage had been found around it, the report added.
The NGT on January 15, 2025, directed the magistrate to ensure that the waste and garbage in and around the pond/water body is removed within a period of one month. Water hyacinth and other plants should also be removed and the water body should be restored to its original state within a month.
However, no report has been filed by the concerned authority, the court was informed.
The NGT on October 15, 2025, directed a three-member committee to look into allegations of biomedical waste dumping into Madhya Pradesh’s Kaliyasot river. The committee is to visit the site and submit the factual and action taken report.
The matter relates to environmental violations being committed by the H K Kalchuri Education Trust, known as LNCT Medical College and J K Hospital, Bhopal.
The institutions are indiscriminately discharging non-degradable biomedical waste into the Kaliyasot and have further violated environmental clearance conditions by raising illegal constructions within the designated green belt area adjoining the river, the applicant said.
The Kaliyasot is a crucial tributary of the Betwa river, which ultimately confluences into the Ganga river basin.
The NGT’s central bench will next take up the case on December 15, 2025.