Environment

Daily Court Digest: Major environment orders (March 19, 2020)

Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal  

 
By DTE Staff
Published: Thursday 19 March 2020
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Debris dumping in Chenab

A report was filed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) Monitoring Committee on March 17, 2020 on the rampant dumping of soil in Chenab and Tawi rivers.

The dumping was underway on the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway-44 between Udhampur and Banihal, where four lanes are being constructed.

The report stated that violations in regard to dumping/ disposal of the excavated debris, including unauthorised and illegal dumping, was taking place in Nashri to Ramban segment.

It added there was a lack of proper maintenance of designated dumping sites leading to passage of muck/ debris into the Chenab area. At one stage representative of the project proponent (Gammon India Ltd) sought to shift liability to an agency engaged by them. He attributed the situation to landslides in the area.

However, the committee said such explanations, in so far as they relate to excavated muck/ soil, cannot be accepted once it was known that excavation work was in progress and a number of designated dumping sites was available.

Bio-medical waste management

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) filed a compliance report in pursuance of the November 20, 2019 NGT order on the matter of air pollution by burning of bio-medical waste by SMS Water Grace Pvt Ltd.

The bio-medical treatment plant was operating at Nilothi near Ranhoula village, Delhi.

During the inspection by the joint team of Central Pollution Control Board, DPCC and sub-divisional magistrate (Punjabi Bagh) on December 27, 2019, the facility was found to be complying with the operating parameters with reference to incinerator as well as autoclave, as defined under the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016.

Natural conservation zone

The shrinkage of natural conservation zone (NCZ) of National Capital Region (NCR) was the topic of report filed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on March 18, 2020.

The committee formed to look into the matter observed that to get a realistic assessment of change in the NCZ within NCR, a fresh exercise using satellite data of comparable spatial resolution and season should be undertaken. It could help analyse land use map showing NCZ on the same scale.

Committee members suggested that National Remotes Sensing Centre or other Indian Space Research Organisation insitutions should be requested to undertake the exercise.

 

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