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The Supreme Court on 5/11/2019 pronounced that no construction could be carried out if it is geographically close to a wildlife sanctuary. The bench said that “The Court has to perform its duty in such a scenario when the authorities have failed to protect the wildlife sanctuary ecosensitive zone.”
Tata HDCL proposed to develop a project named “CAMELOT” in the village Kansal , District Mohali in the State of Punjab. The project area was planned to span over an area over 52.66 acres. It was quickly argued that the environmental clearance dated 17.09.2013 was granted with the help of legal inconsistencies since around 95 MLAs from Punjab were beneficiaries of this aforementioned project. The problem arose when people pointed out that Project “CAMELOT” falls within the catchment area of Sukhna Lake and is 123 meters away from the boundary of Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary. The bench constituted of Justice Arun Mishra, Justice MR Shah and Justice BR Gavai observed that “The entire exercise of obtaining clearance relating to the project is quashed. We regret that such a scenario has emerged in the matter and that it involved a large number of MLAs of Punjab Legislative Assembly.”
The apex Court of the country observed that the proposal sent by the Government of Punjab to the MoEF proposed to keep the Buffer Zone within 100 meters of the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary. MoEF rejected the proposal and indicated to resubmit the proposal after reconsidering the Buffer zone to be at least 1 km from the aforementioned sanctuary. The Court further observed that the most perilous threat faced by the entire human civilization as a whole is the indiscriminate environmental and wildlife degradation. The Court rightly believes that the development and urbanization coming at the cost of adversely affecting our natural surroundings will in turn impact and be the cause of catastrophes like the 2013 Uttarakhand floods and the devastation in Kerala in 2018.
The Court thus ruled that for a project that is 123 meters from the Northern side and 183 meters from the Eastern side of the project “CAMELOT” from the wildlife sanctuary, no such indiscriminate construction can be allowed to come up in the area in question. The Court also grieved that “The origination of the project itself indicates that State of Punjab was not acting in furtherance of Doctrine of Public Trust as 95 MLAs were to be the recipients of the flats. It is clear why Government has not been able to protect the ecosensitive zone around a Wildlife and has permitted setting up of highrise buildings up to 92 meters in the area in question, which is not at all permissible……The State of Punjab was required to act on the basis of Doctrine of Public Trust. It has failed to do so.”
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