Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal
Investment of Rs 26 crore needed for silvicultural felling programme in Himachal: SC told
The two member bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta of the Supreme Court (SC) on April 15 was informed by Himachal Pradesh state government that there is no difficulty in accepting around 24 recommendations made by a committee on silviculture felling of trees.
The SC order in the matter mentions “the monitoring committee has estimated that about Rs 1.25 lakh per hectare (ha) is likely to be spent on all forests under experimental silvicultural felling programme, meaning an investment of about Rs 26 crore on 68 forests spread over 2,054 ha of area for 100% enumerations, silviculture markings, fencing and other required interventions for ensuring regeneration.”
The apex court also permitted ongoing projects of public importance owned and managed by the state government to be completed, including schools, minor irrigation canals, tanks and other minor water bodies.
Non-compliance of Hazardous Waste Management Rules 2016 would attract strict action: NGT
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on April 12, after going through the interim report submitted by the monitoring committee constituted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on the non-compliance of the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules 2016, ordered that the recommendations of the report be fully implemented and monitored by the chief secretaries at the state level, and by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and CPCB at the national level.
The report focused on aspects like hazardous waste identification — uniformity in assessment, byproducts and solvents. Further, the CPCB informed the NGT that the committee has not covered certain aspects like contaminated site, capacity building of regulators, issues related to import and export of hazardous waste; and requested for further time.
The Tribunal gave three months time to the committee to complete its task and made it clear that if the progress in implementation of the Rules is not found to be adequate, the states may be required to furnish performance guarantees to comply with the Rules in a time bound manner.
NGT receives complaint on power plant causing fly ash pollution
The chairperson of the NGT, Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, on April 16 directed the District Magistrate, Muzzafarpur, and Bihar State Pollution Control Board to look into the complaint of pollution being caused by fly ash dump set up by the thermal power plant in Kanti Nagar village of Muzaffarpur — causing damage to health and ecology in the area.
The Tribunal gave the authorities concerned two months time to take appropriate action in accordance with law and submit a factual and action taken report.
Look into illegal sand mining in river Jambhira: NGT
The NGT on April 16 was hearing the case of illegal sand mining and transportation, causing air pollution and damage to River Jambhira and River Muradi in Morad Tehsil, Odisha. The Tribunal directed the District Magistrate, Morad, to look into the matter, take appropriate action in accordance with law and furnish a factual and action taken report in the matter within two months.
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