Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in Supreme Court, high courts & National Green Tribunal
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) February 6, 2024 directed a joint committee to look into the allegations of constructions in the Shivalik range of Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh, undertaken by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, harming the Himalayan ecology.
The committee comprising representatives from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (HPSPCB), deputy commissioner, Sirmaur and deputy commissioner, Shimla has been directed to carry out the spot inspection, ascertain the truthfulness of the allegations made in the application and submit a factual and action taken report at least one week before the next date of hearing set for April 15, 2024.
The applicant has raised a grievance against construction undertaken by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in the process of two lane upgrade with paved boulders of existing single lane Paonta Sahib–Guma section at the National Highway 707.
The allegation of the applicant is that during road widening and upgradation process, contractors are destroying the Himalayan ecology and natural vegetation and they are breaking and cutting the hills on one side of the road and throwing the debris (including boulders, stones, dust) on the steep hillslope on the other side of the road in the valley.
The entire hilly area on the 97 km downside slope is getting destroyed, which includes natural vegetation, river streams, habitations and wildlife, the applicants alleged. Moreover, a large number of trees, including pine and deodar species, have been destroyed and thousands of minor and major river streams have either been covered up with debris or changed their course, they added.
The project has taken the advantage of item 7(f) of the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006 by segmenting NH 707 into smaller segments and bringing it to less than 100 km, whereas the project is actually of the length of 103.55 kms, the application claimed. In support of the submission, counsel for the applicants referred to a communication July 18, 2022 issued by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
A cooperative society in Odisha (Maa Durga Primary Fisherman Co Operative Society Ltd) moved the NGT seeking issuance of directions to the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying to frame concrete guidelines to avoid different kind of ambiguities related to the identification of Clarias gariepinus (exotic magur) and Clarias batrachus (Indian magur).
The applicant wanted an issue of clarification related to ban on the culture, breeding, transportation and import of exotic magur and Hybrid clarias (magur) (a hybrid of Clarias batrachus and Clarias gariepinus).
The NGT February 6 directed the cooperative society (Maa Durga Primary Fisherman Co-operative Society) to file the relevant documents required and directed the matter to be listed for April 1, 2024 for further consideration.
An application registered in NGT on the basis of a news item in The Times of India about Tamil Nadu forest department objecting to flights flying over protected areas of the state was heard before the court February 7, 2024.
The news item disclosed that a chartered helicopter flew over Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) and the protected area of Mukurthi National Park in the Nilgiris. It also contained the stand of the forest department to avoid forest and protected areas in Tamil Nadu while designating paths for choppers and flights.
The principal bench of the NGT directed notice to be issued to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Tamil Nadu Forest Department; Chief Wildlife Warden, Tamil Nadu and Directorate General of Civil Aviation through its director-general.
The status report filed by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Tamil Nadu Forest Department and Chief Wildlife Warden, Tamil Nadu was filed stating that the helicopter took off from outside the boundaries of the reserve forest area.
Along with a status report, a communication of Tamil Nadu Forest Department was placed on record. It quoted the order of the High Court that mentioned the Supreme Court’s guidelines “prohibiting flights in zones such as National Parks, core and buffer zones of tiger reserves and bird sanctuaries”.
The authorities sought time to file a more comprehensive report.
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