Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal through the week
Marble mining at Saren Phala and Nichla Phala
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on November 26, 2019 directed the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board (RSPCB) to submit a further action-taken report for determining environmental compensation of illegal marble mining at Saren Phala and Nichla Phala in Rajasthan's Udaipur.
The tribunal found that the assessment of compensation made earlier by the RSPCB was erroneous as it ignored the norms laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board as well as the tribunal.
The report submitted by the RSPCB on determining environmental compensation was found to be unsatisfactory by the tribunal as it did not mention the area of mining, value of the mined material, financial capacity of the miner and extent of violations, all of which are to be the basis for calculating the compensation.
Road encroachment
The case of encroachment of the Ring Road and carrying on of polluting activities on a stretch of road from Raghuvir Nagar to Punjabi Bagh in Delhi was disposed of by the NGT on November 26.
The order came in the wake of the submission of the status report from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the South Delhi Municipal Corporation. The report stated that illegal encroachment had been removed, damaged boundary wall repaired and environmental compensation assessed.
Tree felling
The NGT on November 26 directed the district magistrate, Indore, to take appropriate action on the complaint of illegal cutting of trees and encrochment by a coloniser on government land and the Saraswati river at AB Road, Bijalpur village.
The report submitted by the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board acknowledged the cutting of trees without permission. Also, the channelisation of a drain was done by the coloniser without prior permission from the state irrigation department.
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