Environmental governance not just reactive exercise: SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said environmental governance cannot be reduced to a “reactive exercise” undertaken only after repeated judicial intervention or upon threat of personal accountability before constitutional courts.

The observations came from a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta, which passed a slew of directions for effective implementation of environmental and statutory safeguards in the regions affected by rampant illegal sand mining within and around the National Chambal Gharial Sanctuary.

The apex court said constitutional obligations cast a continuing duty upon the State and its instrumentalities to anticipate environmental harm, prevent ecological degradation and ensure preservation of fragile ecosystems through effective governance and enforcement. The National Chambal Sanctuary, also called the National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary, is a 5,400-sq km tri-State protected area. Besides the endangered gharial (long-snouted crocodile), it is home to the red-crowned roof turtle and the endangered Ganges river Dolphin.

Located on the Chambal River near the tripoint of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the sanctuary was first declared a protected area in Madhya Pradesh in 1978 and now constitutes a long and narrow eco-reserve co-administered by the three States.

In its 61-page order, the top court referred to the compliance affidavits filed by the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

The bench said the affidavits now filed disclose a degree of administrative movement and institutional coordination which was conspicuously absent when the matter was previously considered.

“The fact that multiple departments of the State have now come forward with specific proposals, enforcement measures, budgetary allocations and operational plans demonstrates that the gravity of the situation has at least now been acknowledged at the appropriate administrative levels,” it noted.

The bench said it cannot ignore the “disturbing fact” that a substantial number of actions now projected before it appear to have been initiated only after stringent directions were issued requiring the personal presence of senior officers of the Rajasthan government before the court.

It said the chronology emerging from the record prima facie indicated that several crucial decisions relating to surveillance infrastructure, constitution of enforcement mechanisms, operational coordination, seizure protocols and inter-departmental action plans were undertaken only after judicial intervention assumed a “more coercive and supervisory character”.

The bench said issues arising in the matter were not isolated instances of regulatory breach but concern continuing ecological destruction, degradation of protected wildlife habitats, organised illegal mining operations, erosion of public infrastructure, and a serious breakdown of the rule of law in ecologically sensitive regions.

“Environmental governance cannot be reduced to a reactive exercise undertaken only after repeated judicial intervention or upon threat of personal accountability before constitutional courts,” it said.

Exercising its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, the bench directed these three states to undertake immediate and effective steps for the augmentation of field-level enforcement officials in the respective forest departments, including recruitment to vacant posts of forest guards and other frontline enforcement personnel.

It said the recruitment process in respect of such posts shall be expedited and these states should ensure that the process for filling up of vacant posts is initiated forthwith and completed, as far as practicable, within a year.

The bench directed these states to take effective steps for the establishment and operationalisation of surveillance and monitoring infrastructure in the affected regions, including CCTV surveillance systems, integrated monitoring mechanisms, control centres and allied technological infrastructure.

“The said process shall be undertaken on a war footing and all substantial surveillance measures proposed pursuant to the earlier orders of this court shall be fast-tracked and operationalised, as far as practicable, within a period of six months from the date of this order,” it said.

The bench directed the states to undertake stringent, continuous and coordinated enforcement action against vehicles and machinery involved in illegal mining and transportation activities within and around the affected regions.

It directed that appropriate criminal prosecution be initiated not merely against the drivers of vehicles involved in illegal mining and transportation activities, “but also against the owners, financiers, operators, contractors and all other persons forming part of, facilitating or otherwise connected with organised illegal mining network operating in the affected regions”.

Besides other directions, the bench said that the NHAI shall, in consultation with the Central Empowered Committee, undertake the installation of high-resolution CCTV surveillance cameras equipped with night vision capability on a bridge situated near the Morena-Dholpur border.

“The surveillance infrastructure shall be positioned in a manner that effectively covers the river bed and vulnerable stretches falling within the aforesaid zone so as to deter and detect illegal mining and excavation activities in the vicinity of the bridge foundations and supporting structures,” it said and posted the matter for hearing on July 22.