Continued contamination of three rivers in Rajasthan has virtually put the lives of two million people at peril, the Supreme Court said on Friday as it constituted a high-level ecosystem oversight committee to supervise remedial measures required to check further pollution.
It passed the order in a suo motu case concerning contamination in the Jojari river.
The apex court said the contamination in the Jojari, Bandi and Luni rivers in Rajasthan reflected a sustained “systemic collapse” of regulatory vigilance and “utter administrative apathy” stretching over nearly two decades.
“The present proceedings involve issues of grave concern and disastrous consequences, as a fallout of apathy at all levels which has virtually put the lives of two million people, animals and the ecosystem of three important rivers in western Rajasthan at peril,” a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said.
It said the pollution of these riverine ecosystems represented an assault not merely on natural watercourses but on the constitutional guarantees that animate and sustain the Indian Republic, that is, right to life, dignity, health, safe drinking water, ecological balance, equality, and the right of future generations to inherit an environment capable of sustaining life.
When environmental degradation reaches such “gargantuan proportions” that it strikes at the foundation of these guarantees, the injury transcends the ecological realm and becomes a direct constitutional injury requiring immediate, comprehensive and effective judicial redress, the bench said.
It noted the Jojari River passes through Jodhpur, the Bandi River flows through Pali, and the Luni River passes through Balotra. The Bandi and Jojari rivers merge into the Luni near Balotra city.
“This court has, over the years, been called upon to examine innumerable issues pertaining to environmental degradation, but the factual matrix of this case stands out for the duration, extent, and magnitude of the harm inflicted,” it said.
The SC bench said that in the face of such entrenched environmental degradation, delay is not merely undesirable; it is “carcinogenic and catastrophic”.
It said Justice Sangeet Lodha, a retired judge of the Rajasthan High Court, will be the chairperson of the high-level ecosystem oversight committee.
The top court referred to a status report filed recently by Rajasthan, delineating the steps undertaken by various state agencies in response to the environmental crisis, and noted the state has undertaken several urgent measures after it took suo motu cognisance of the issue.
“We are pained to observe that these remedial measures have been triggered by the suo motu cognisance taken by this court... Whereas the state should have acted spontaneously years ago, for ensuring round-the-clock compliance, which is the constitutional obligation of the state government and the authorities concerned,” it said.