New Delhi, Apr 8 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday told an NGO challenging the order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) giving a go ahead to the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor Expressway which will reduce travel time between the two cities by four hours, that it can raise its grievance over environment and bio-diversity before an expert committee.
The top court, however, asked for some names including forest research and management institutes, whose representatives could be incorporated into the expert panel, to allay the apprehensions of the NGO.
The new six-lane highway will reduce the travel time from 6.5 hours to just 2.5 hours as per the plan of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and would have a 12-kilometer elevated road to protect the wildlife and forests.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Aniruddha Bose said that by Monday the names of the institute and experts can be given and it would ask the NGO to raise the grievances before the committee. The bench said that the NGT has applied its mind and constituted an expert committee which includes the Chief Secretary level officer and various forest officials from the Centre and both Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand keeping in mind the larger public interest and the defence of the country in mind. Advocate Ritwik Dutta, appearing for NGO ‘Citizens of Green Doon’, said that the damage caused to the ecology of the area due to this project will not be compensated. He said that this court already sent the matter back to the NGT and it should consider every aspect and give reasons concerning compensatory afforestation as these are all dense forests, where tree felling has started.
Dutta said that the committee is not an expert body nor possesses any special qualification and includes no independent members but officials from the Centre or the States.
“There is also a conflict of interest angle in it as the Wildlife Board of India which has given the opinion was also part of the meeting which has approved the project”, he said, adding that forest clearance was granted based on misinformation given. He said that NHAI has built underpasses for tigers that are of sub-standard level and submerged in the water and the tribunal did not even assess the efficacy of these underpasses. The bench said that all these issues can be raised before the expert committee, and “you should suggest to us the name, if any, which could be included in the committee. We will pass orders on Monday”.
Justice Chandrachud told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was in the courtroom for other matters that it is a challenge to the order of NGT, and earlier the Attorney General had appeared in the matter.
“Now the petitioners say that NGT has given them the liberty to appear before the expert committee, he (Dutta) wants some unofficial members along with official members”, the bench said.
Mehta said that not trusting an officer merely because he is a government servant would not be a correct approach and someone not from the government may have his notions and no actual idea of ground-level issues. “They should leave it to the chief secretary”, Mehta said, after which the bench posted the matter for further hearing on Monday.
Earlier, on November 16, last year the top court had remanded back to the NGT a plea of the NGO challenging forest clearances granted to the Expressway which will reduce travel time between the two cities. The top court had till the time NGT took up the matter stayed felling of around 11,000 trees and plants on the Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road (NH-72A) stretch, which is part of the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor. The top court had asked the NGT to pass a reasoned order on each of the averments made by the NGO and asked it to list the matter within 24 hours of filing the plea.
Attorney General KK Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, had said that this project should not be stayed in the public interest as all necessary clearances were taken by the NHAI. “Years of planning have gone into it before the project was started.
This project takes care of wildlife and forests in the area and for the first time in the country a 12 kilometer elevated road is being constructed above the forests to not disrupt the path of elephants and other wild animals,” he had said. He had said that this road without blocking the elephant corridor or the path of any other wild animals will allow smooth travel of vehicles and would reduce the travel time between the two cities. On November 11, last year the top court had directed the Centre that there should not be any tree felling on the Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road (NH-72A), which is a part of the Delhi-Dehradun expressway till November 16.
On September 7, last year the top court had refused to entertain a PIL filed by the NGO challenging the forest and wildlife clearances given to Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road (NH-72A) stretch and asked them to first move the NGT with its grievances.
The top court had noted that stage one forest clearance was given in September last year and wildlife clearance was given on January 5, 2021, for a 19.78-km-long stretch of the road from Ganeshpur (in UP) to Dehradun.
Delhi-Dehradun Expressway will directly connect the two cities after crisscrossing areas like Loni, Baghpat, Shamli, Saharanpur, and Ganeshpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Uttarakhand will have 3.6 kilometres of the expressway while around 16 kilometres will pass through Uttar Pradesh. PTI MNL MNL RKS RKS
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