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Supreme Court Rejects The Plea Of Numaligarh Against The Demolition Order Of The Concrete Wall In The Deopahar Protected Reserve Forest (DRPF)
The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the prayer of the Assam-based PSU Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) sating that the elephant has the right first over the forest. The Apex Court ordered it to pull down the entire concrete wall of 2.2 km area as it blocked the free movement of elephants. The notable argument here is that the NRL, in 2011, constructed the wall using barbed wire along with a razor fence right in the centre of an elephant corridor for the expansion of its township which also had a golf course in the planned forest reserve area of Deopahar, in the vicinity of the Kaziranga National Park. Earlier in August 2018, a bench headed by National Green Tribunal (NGT) Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel while dismissing the review plea of NRL stated that elephant corridors have to be preserved for the protection of their habitats from fragmentation and asked NRL to comply with the demolition order approved in 2016. Hence the NGT Tribunal refused to review the demolition order passed in 2016.
The Supreme Court bench consisting of DY Chandrachud and Judge MR Shah rejected the appeal NRL’s appeal against the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order passed on August 3, 2018. The NRL pleaded before the court that about 1 hectare of the entire wall is already demolished in March of last year and that the entire wall should not be demolished since it is not part of the Deopahar reserve forest.
Environmental activist Rohit Choudhary, who fought in the legal battle for the protection of wildlife in Kaziranga and illegal mining, moved NGT against the construction of the concrete wall and pointed out how the disputed wall separated the village from the rest of the Deophahar protected reserve forest area. The obstruction caused the death of 12 elephants as they moved down this corridor in search of food. Deopahar lies in the close proximity of Kaziranga National Park; a UNESCO recognised World Heritage Site and is home to one-horned rhinoceroses. His request was heard in the NGT’s order of 2016 which required the demolition of the fenced wall blocking the way of elephants falling in the Deopahar Protected Reserve Forest (DRPF) and within the prohibition of the No Development Zone (NDZ) notification of the Environment Ministry issued in 1996. Any non-forestry activity in the forests would violate the decision of the Apex Court in the case of TN Godavarman (1996), and the wall should be demolished within a month and the refinery is restrained to erect the proposed township in its current location. Therefore, the NRL had moved the review request saying that the project of its township had the approval of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority and that the entire wall should not be demolished since it was not part of the Deopahar reserve forest.
The NGT rejected the review application of the order of 24.08.2016 stating that in view of a categorical data already recorded by the Tribunal (in its judgment of 2016), the area in which the wall was located and the area in which it is proposed township is to constructed is a part of the Deopahar Reserve Forest and the rehearing the matter on merits is not allowed.
