20-Dec-2020: NGT panel for protection of Mahanadi floodplain

The National Green Tribunal has constituted a high-level committee to identify floodplain zones of the Mahanadi (Odisha’s largest river).

This comes in the wake of the State government reclaiming 424 acres of land from the river for development projects.

The Chief Minister had announced that every inch of the 424 acres reclaimed land would be utilised to add ecological, recreational, sporting, cultural and technological value in the lives of the people of Cuttack.

An activist had moved NGT to prevent irreversible damage to the riverine ecology by enforcing the applicable rules.

12-Sep-2019: NGT forms committee to stop illegal groundwater extraction

Expressing concern over depleting groundwater levels, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set up a committee to formulate steps required to prevent its unauthorised extraction.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the committee to evolve a robust mechanism to ensure that groundwater is not illegally extracted and to monitor manning and functioning of the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA).

The committee comprises joint secretaries of Ministry of Environment and Forests and Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR), Central Ground Water Board, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, National Remote Sensing Centre and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The nodal agency will be the Joint Secretary, MoWR for coordination and compliance. The Committee may look into the reports already submitted. The report may be furnished within two months by e-mail.

The CPCB report stating that water intensive industries can be allowed even in semi-critical and critical areas without any further safeguards may not be acted upon till further orders.

The report of CPCB with regard to compensation is accepted by way of an interim arrangement and the same may be acted upon by the regulatory authorities and compensation recovered from the violators, for the period of violation, which may be assessed on case to case basis.

The tribunal said despite a Supreme Court order in 1996 with regard to groundwater extraction, the water level has only gone down. In its order, the apex court had directed the central government to constitute a body to look into the issue of groundwater depletion.

Unfortunately, in spite of clear directions of the Supreme Court, the CGWA is not willing to take the ownership of the subject and repeatedly takes the plea that it does not have the infrastructure or that the responsibility of dealing with the problem is of the States and not that of the said authority. It is high time that the working of the CGWA is reviewed and remedial measures are taken, including assessment of suitability of the person to head it.

14-May-2019: NGT directs 18 states, 2 UTs to submit action plan on utilization of treated wastewater

The National Green Tribunal directed 18 states and two Union Territories to submit an action plan to ensure utilization of treated waste to reduce pressure on the groundwater resources throughout the country. Hearing a plea, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the states and UTs to submit the action plan within three months to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The green panel said the states which have still not furnished their action plans are defaulters for violating the directions of the tribunal for which no valid reason can be seen.

It noted that only nine states and five UTs have submitted the action plan. Accordingly to the CPCB status report, the states which have not submitted action plans include Gujarat, Assam, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

19-Nov-2018: Elephant corridors should be made eco-sensitive zones

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) to consider declaring all elephant corridors in the country as eco-sensitive zones.

Following a plea that sought legal recognition to the elephant reserves and corridors in the state of Assam, a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said, “After hearing the matter for some time, it was noted by us that issue of elephant corridors have been raised by different applicants and various judgments have also been passed by the Tribunal. Therefore, we direct MoEF&CC to look into this aspect in a broader perspective and also to have a permanent solution.”

The bench further added, “We would like the Ministry to look in to the issue by declaring all elephant corridors all over the country as eco sensitive zones by exercising its power (under relevant Acts.). We give two weeks' time to the Ministry to look into the issue and to proceed in the matter for declaration of such areas as eco sensitive zones.”

“It is the case of the applicants that it is the complete lack of legal protection to elephant corridors and elephant reserves that has led to a large number of deaths in areas beyond the protected areas and for which the applicants have sought intervention from the tribunal” read the petition.

The petition further said, “Owing to the increased denudation and loss of their forest habitats, elephants have come increasingly into conflicts with humans and faced deliberate retaliatory killings and accidents at railway crossings, high tension power lines, power fences and trenches.”

4-Sep-2018: NGT restrains 6 states from giving EC to activities affecting eco-sensitive areas

Noting that the ecology of the Western Ghats was under serious stress, the National Green Tribunal restrained six states falling in the region from giving environmental clearance to activities which may adversely affect the eco-sensitive areas.

The green panel allowed the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to republish the draft notification of the Western Ghats that lapsed on August 26 and asked it to finalise the matter within six months without alterations to the eco-sensitive zone in terms of notification dated February 27, 2017.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel slammed the states for the delay in filing objections with regard to the notification and said "delay on account of objections of states may not be conducive to the protection of the eco-sensitive areas".

The tribunal said the Western Ghats region is one of the richest biodiversity areas which needs to be conserved.

In view of the fact that any alteration in the draft notification dated February 27, 2017 may seriously affect the environment and especially in view of recent incidents in Kerala, we direct that no changes be made to reduce the area of eco-sensitive zone in terms of notification, without the same being considered by this tribunal.

As already directed vide order dated September 25, 2014, no environmental clearance be granted and no activity adversely impacting eco-sensitive areas be permitted in the area covered by draft notification dated till the matter is finalised.

The order came after the MoEF in its affidavit told the bench that the earlier notification was republished on February 27, 2017 and was communicated to the states of the Western Ghats region for their views.

It said Karnataka raised objections seeking review of the prohibitory and regulatory regime recommended for eco- sensitive areas in Western Ghats while Goa and Gujarat had not sent their views.

The ministry said the matter was delayed due to lack of response from some states and republication of the draft notification dated had become necessary.

The draft notification issued by the MoEF had identified area of 56,825 square kilometres spread across six states Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as the Ecologically Sensitive Area.

Following protests by various groups and political parties against its recommendations, the government constituted the K Kasturirangan committee to examine the WGEEP report.

Instead of the total area of Western Ghats, only 37 per cent (i.e. 60,000 sq. km) of the total area be brought under ESA under Kasturirangan report.

8-Oct-2020: EPCA directs slew of measures as Delhi air turns noxious again

The Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) directed a slew of measures to governments in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, after air quality in the national capital remained ‘poor’ for the second day October 8, 2020.

The measures come under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), an emergency plan to combat air pollution. It lists several measures depending on the category of air quality and will come into force from October 15.

The measures include banning the use of diesel generator sets (other than essential / emergency services) in Delhi and in its satellite towns of Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad and Gurugram.

EPCA, a Supreme Court-mandated body, has also asked large construction projects, including highways and the Delhi Metro to provide an undertaking to the state pollution control boards / committees. The undertaking will state that these project operators will assure adherence to prescribed norms / guidelines for dust management.

EPCA has also asked industries to provide an undertaking that they will use only authorised fuel and will not operate without adequate pollution control measures.

The air quality index (AQI) October 8 was 208, according to the Central Pollution Control Board’s bulletin. The AQI was based on an average of the past 24 hours.

An AQI from 0-50 is considered ‘good’, 51-100 ‘satisfactory’, 101-200 ‘moderate’, 201-300 ‘poor’, 301-400 ‘very poor’ and 401-500 ‘severe’. Above 500 is the ‘severe-plus or emergency’ category.

The winter period sees worsening air quality because there is less dispersion and lower temperatures trap pollutants close to the ground. It is therefore necessary to ensure that the levels do not rise further, even with coming winter weather conditions in the days to come.

Additional steps will be taken if pollution turned severe, which include closure of power plants in the National Capital Region (NCR) that do not adhere to the 2017 emission norms, and restraint on private transport through measures as listed in GRAP to enhance parking fees.

The NCR cities of Ghaziabad, Greater Noida, Noida and Faridabad were in the ‘poor’ category, while Gurugram was in the ‘moderate’ category October 8.

9-Jul-2019: Bolster public transport to reduce air pollution: EPCA

To reduce air pollution in Delhi, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) requested the Supreme Court to intervene in the “grossly inadequate” public transport infrastructure of the city.

In a ‘special report’ submitted to the SC on July 1, the EPCA urged it to intervene for the approval of Phase IV of Delhi Metro, which is stuck between the Central and Delhi governments. It also requested the SC to ask the government to speed up the process to purchase more buses. Cities like Beijing have 107 buses per lakh people while Delhi has 17 buses per lakh people. The proposal for phase IV of Delhi Metro was submitted in 2014 and work was to begin by 2016 and “further delay will cost the city enormously”.

The stalemate between the governments are on different financial aspects of the project. The Delhi government has on April 10, 2019, communicated its direction that Delhi Metro Rail Corporation would not start the work till these issues are resolved.

The EPCA said there are four issues between the governments — taxes, sharing of land cost, bearing operational cost and repayment of JICA loan. Two of these are “notional”, adding that the Centre says operational cost should be borne by the Delhi government while the latter demands a 50:50 share. The DMRC stated that the costs involved in the project costs would increase with delay.

The Supreme Court in 1998 stated that the city should have 10,000 buses, but there are only 5,279 buses in the city. All DTC buses are above 8-10 years. The maintenance contract for the operation of the buses is for 10 years. So replacement becomes critical as more and more buses would be phased out in the coming 2-3 years. It is clear that the number of additional buses that will be on Delhi roads by January 2020 would be 1,000 and an additional 650 buses could be on roads soon after. This would not be sufficient and therefore, the procurement strategies of the remaining buses must be expedited.

7-Oct-2018: Government reconstitutes Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority.

The Centre has reconstituted the Supreme Court-empowered Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority(EPCA). The tenure of the last EPCA expired on October 3.

The ministry said that while reconstituting the EPCA, it tried to broad-base the organisation and therefore brought in more members. Former secretary Bhure Lal continues to be the chairman, while the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) DG Sunita Narain is one of the members.

The other members of the 20-member re-constituted authority include Ajay Mathur, who is the Director General of The Energy Research Institute (TERI), Arunabha Ghosh, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Energy Environment and Water, Navroz K. Dubash, the Senior Fellow for the Centre for Policy Research among others.

The EPCA was constituted with the objective of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing and controlling the environmental pollution in the National Capital Region. The EPCA is also mandated to enforce Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in the city as per the pollution levels.

In November, the EPCA had enforced several measures, including closure of the Badarpur thermal power plant, ban on brick kilns, hot mix plants and stone crushers, and construction activities.