Down To Earth brings you the top environmental cases heard in the Supreme Court, the high courts and the National Green Tribunal
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the Maharashtra government to pay Rs 12,000 crore for allegedly not managing liquid as well as solid wastes.
The amount has to be deposited within two months and it should be used for restoration measures, the tribunal ordered September 8, 2022.
The restoration measures for sewage management would include:
Bioremediation techniques, complying with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) guidelines, must be implemented, the tribunal added.
Bioremediation is a branch of biotechnology that uses living organisms, like microbes and bacteria, to remove contaminants, pollutants and toxins.
The bench of judges Adarsh Kumar Goel and Sudhir Agarwal stressed that the restoration needs to be planned and executed in a time-bound manner.
Granite-cutting and polishing units in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, are no longer discharging marble and granite slurry into agricultural lands, stated the joint committee report filed before the NGT September 8, 2022.
Srikakulam district has 128 granite-cutting and polishing units, the report stated.
The committee stated that it did not find any granite waste stored or stacked near Harischandrapuram railway gate and other areas. The illegal dumping sites were cleared and the area has been restored, it added.
The Srikakulam district collector had earlier instructed owners of granite quarries and polishing facilities to set up a yard on their premises and dump the wastage into it.
The NGT directed the Odisha government to file their reply disclosing the steps taken to stop encroachments on waterbodies inBhubaneswar.
The NGT Eastern Zone Bench in Kolkata was responding to an application September 9.
The waterbody Nayapali Haza in Nayapalli Mouza (block) in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and another natural drain have been encroached illegally, the applicant stated.
Appropriate steps are being taken to conserve Narhariyanand Talab (pond) in Saikheda Municipal Council, Madhya Pradesh, said the state government in its report to the NGT.
The Municipal Council is setting up a sewage treatment plant and 80 per cent of its work is already completed, stated the report, filed in compliance with the NGT order dated July 13, 2022.
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