Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal
The Uttarakhand Environment Protection and Pollution Control Board (UEPPCB) assured the National Green Tribunal (NGT) January 5, 2024 of submission of a report on the carrying capacity of pilgrimage centres in the state within two months.
The counsel appearing for UEPPCB admitted that so far, no carrying capacity study was carried out. It will be done now and a report filed before the tribunal. The matter has been listed for March 6, 2024.
The execution application was filed seeking execution of order of NGT February 8, 2023. In that application, grievance was raised in respect of large-scale unregulated violation of environmental norms along the pilgrim tracks of Kedarnath, Hemkund Sahib, Yamunotri and Gomukh pilgrimage centres in Uttarakhand.
On the direction of the tribunal, the joint committee had submitted the report which was duly considered by the court in the order under execution. In the concluding remark, one of the recommendations of the joint committee was relating to calculation of carrying capacity.
The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) was directed by NGT January 5 to carry out a water audit of Nectar Life Sciences Ltd, a pharmaceutical industry located in Haibatpur village, Dera Bassi, SAS Nagar.
In addition to the water audit report, PPCB was asked to submit the water flow chart of the industry and also the sample analysis report of discharge of water from the unit by whatever source.
The report will also disclose the manner of disposal of sludge by the unit in question and quality of groundwater around the industry. PPCB has been directed to file the report within a period of six weeks, the order said.
In the application, the grievance was against Nectar Life Sciences discharging highly polluted chemical effluents in the agricultural fields causing damage to the crop, land and other incidental issues.
The court had earlier constituted a joint committee which, in its report dated July 15, 2023, found that the unit was non-compliant with many pollution norms. However, no violation was found by the committee when it came to illegal discharge of chemical effluent into agricultural fields.
NGT directed Uttar Pradesh to file a report mentioning the amount of compensation paid to the family members of the deceased children, who lost their lives in brick kiln pits in an area in Muzaffarnagar district.
The bench of justices Prakash Shrivastava and Sudhir Agarwal also sought information regarding the prosecution of the brick kilns and the material collected in that process.
The joint committee, in its report on January 3, 2024, mentioned that in the case of Shri Ram Brick Field — the brick kiln had dug various pits upto the depth of 2 metres. Those pits were filled with the rain water and the depths of the pits were not known. Thus, an accident could take place.
The committee also found that the pits lacked fencing and notice boards that could help prevent such accidents. The brick kiln was grossly negligent in this regard, it noted. Similar is the finding of the committee in respect of another brick kiln, Maa Bhagwati Brick Field.
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