National Green Tribunal
Gauri Maulekhi vs Government Of Jammu And Kashmir on 18 May, 2017
Author: Swatanter Kumar
Bench: Swatanter Kumar
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL,
PRINCIPAL BENCH, NEW DELHI
Original Application No. 473 of 2015
(M.A. No. 10/2016, M.A. No. 296/2017 & M.A. No. 490/2017)
IN THE MATTER OF:-
Gauri Maulekhi Vs. State of J & K &Ors.
CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SWATANTER KUMAR, CHAIRPERSON
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAGHUVENDRA S. RATHORE, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE MR. BIKRAM SINGH SAJWAN, EXPERT MEMBER
Present: Applicant: Mr. Krishnan Venugopal, Sr. Adv. alongwith Mr.
Aditya Singla, Adv. Ms. Ambika Nijjar, Adv. and
Ms. Urvi Mohan, Adv.
Respondent No. 3 : Mr. Gaurav Pachnanda, Sr. Advo alongwith Ms.
Renu Gupta, Ms. Shruti Gupta, Advs. for Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Respondent No. 5: Mr. Anupam Raina, Adv.
Ms. Sakshi Popli, Adv. for Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Mr. G.M. Kawoosa, Adv M. B.V. Niren, Adv.
Date and Orders of the Tribunal
Remarks
Item No.
30 Having heard the Learned Counsel appearing for the
May 18, parties and all the stakeholders at some length. We pass
2017
the following interim directions:-
ss
1. To remove the sheds from the banks of river Ban Ganga and to provide all necessary resources to the District Administration for this purpose. The District Administration may additionally call on the assistance of Shrine Board for machinery and equipment to the extent available with them for this purpose. The orders shall be subject to and will not affect the rights of the parties who are petitioner before the Hon'ble High Court in the proceedings and some orders have been passed by the Hon'ble High Court.
2. There shall be no parking of horses or mules on any part of river Ban Ganga and any person parking such horses or mules, shall be liable to be dealt with under the directions contained in this order except Item No. 30 where the parking is specifically notified by the May 18, Government/Board.2017
ss 3. In addition to being empowered to seize for a period of two weeks any mules/equines found parked within 50 meters from the Ban Ganga, the District Administration is also empowered to impose a fine and/or environmental compensation to the extent of Rs. 2,000/-.
4. In the event that the same mule/equine owner commits two violations of any statutory provisions including the restriction on parking within 200 meters of Ban Ganga, the District Administration and/or the Shrine Board shall inform the SPCA immediately of such violations, who shall take decision about revoking the registration of the mule/equine registered in the name of the said owner for plying within the area of the Shrine Board. No new operator shall be registered in place of a revoked registration.
5. The District Administration may also impose, on private land owners along the Ban Ganga, a fine/environmental restitution of Rs. 2,000/- per animal found parked within 200 meters of the Ban Ganga. This imposition of fine shall not prevent the District Administration from removing sheds at the cost of the land owners.
6. All fines/environmental restitution collected pursuant to the above directions (other than statutory fines) shall be deposited by the District Item No. Administration in the SPCA's account to create a 30 corpus, which shall be used only for the expenses May 18, 2017 involved in removal of sheds and for welfare of the ss mules/equines.
7. We shall consider at the time of final hearing of the Original Application, the issue of phasing out of mules/equines. As an ad interim measure, due to the serious pollution of the Ban Ganga, registration shall be limited to the existing 4,600 mules/equines and 500 pack animals (each operator would be permitted to register only one mule/equine, as per the existing policy). In case of death by natural calamities (excluding fire), the animal may be replaced. In all other cases, registration or replacement of mule/equine shall not be permitted for a period of four years from the date of death of the mule/equine.
8. In order to ensure that the above directions are capable of implementation, the District Administration shall start a system of tamper-proof identification of the previously registered mules/equines and pack animals using Perma Flex ear-tagging within one week from today and the process shall be completed within four weeks. After a period of four weeks from today, the District Administration and the Shrine Board shall ensure that no untagged mule/equine is plied on the track to the shrine for passengers, goods or supplies.
9. The District Administration, in consultation with the Shrine Board, will issue an order fixing a reasonable Item No. fee, per shop, to be collected by the Shrine Board 30 from the shop-keepers of private areas on the track May 18, 2017 for the service to collect and remove garbage ss generated by the shops.
10. Counsel for the State Government shall take instructions from the Secretary, Animal Husbandry on the deadline by which the three existing posts of Veterinary Officer at three different locations on the track and appropriate number of para-veterinary officers shall be filed up by the State Government.
11. The new walking track is stated to be complete from Bhawan to Ardh Kuwari. However cover is to be provided to the tracks from Ardh Kunwari to Ban Ganga, which should be completed and made operational positively by 1st September, 2017. Liberty is granted to the Board to apply for extension after showing the work which has been done by that time.
12. The State Government, Police Authority, Administration and all other Authorities are directed to provide complete assistance for compliance of these directions and also take appropriate action particularly in relation to parking of horses, creation of private shed and maintenance of law and order in the area.
13. The State Government, the Board and other stakeholders will submit the compliance report before the Tribunal by the next date of hearing.
14. The horses' or mules' dung shall be duly dealt with in its entirety. The report in this regard should be Item No. submitted by 11th July, 2017. 30
15. The Administration shall without any further delay May 18, 2017 identify and provide the parking sites for the horses ss and mules which, we are told, is already in the process of finalization. The same should be identified by the SPCA expeditiously, in any case not later than four weeks.
List this matter on 11th July, 2017.
..........................................,CP (Swatanter Kumar) ..........................................,JM (Raghuvendra S. Rathore) ..........................................,EM (Bikram Singh Sajwan)