Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal
There are a total of 167 industries in the state and the online data on emissions from these industries is displayed on the website of the Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board (CECB), the board said in its report to the NGT.
The report said some 125 industries regularly update data and 27 are temporarily closed. The data from 15 industries is not received due to technical and network issues. CECB has issued directions to these industries to ensure that regular emissions data is sent to the board, the report read.
The report was submitted in response to an NGT order. While responding to a petition related to industrial emissions, the NGT had also asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to look into the same.
Ramesh Agarwal filed a petition before the NGT’s central zonal bench, Bhopal, in 2021. He highlighted the problems with industrial online continuous emission/effluent monitoring system data displayed by the states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
CPCB then said the data on industry emissions for Chhattisgarh was not complete or easily accessible in the public domain.
A survey has been carried out to measure the depth of Najafgarh drain as part of efforts to rejuvenate Najafgarh jheel (lake), said a report submitted before the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
An Inter-Ministerial Expert Group formed by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has prepared a draft report for conservation and rejuvenation of the Najafgarh jheel, it added. The report was submitted December 5, 2022, in response to an NGT order.
Untreated sewage runs into the 41-km-long drain, making it one of Delhi-NCR’s most contaminated waterbodies.
The Najafgarh jheel is an important natural infrastructure for the area. It acts as a flood barrier, replenishes groundwater (with a high potential for delivering water to a sizable population) and offers habitat to various plant, animal and bird species.
The lake is situated along National Highway 48 in a natural valley in southwest Delhi, close to the Gurugram-Rajokri border. Sewage from Gurugram and the other villages of Delhi has mostly filled the lake.
The NGT had ordered the governments of Delhi and Haryana to implement the Environment Management Plan (EMP) that the two governments have created to revitalise and conserve the Najafgarh jheel.
An applicant has flagged environmental violations in the Uttar Pradesh government’s housing scheme Sidhharth Vihar Yojna. The principal bench of NGT December 6, 2022, has constituted a committee to look into the same.
Some projects under the scheme have not installed green belts and sewage treatment plants. Such constructions “are causing huge pollution,” the applicant said. The tribunal ordered the committee to submit a report within one month.
“The report may also provide status of existing infrastructure in the area to carry treated sewage (sewerage) and solid waste collection and transportation systems for processing at identified sites,” the tribunal directed.
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