National Green Tribunal
News Item Titled "From Ropar To ... vs Item No. 15 Court No on 28 August, 2024
Item No. 15 Court No. 1
BEFORE THE NATIONAL GREEN TRIBUNAL
PRINCIPAL BENCH, NEW DELHI
Original Application No. 553/2024
News item titled "From Ropar to Hoshiarpur via HP 30-km detour as
illegal mining damages bridge" appearing in The Indian Express dated
10.04.2024.
Date of hearing: 28.08.2024
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE PRAKASH SHRIVASTAVA, CHAIRPERSON
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SUDHIR AGARWAL JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN KUMAR TYAGI, JUDICIAL MEMBER
HON'BLE DR. AFROZ AHMAD, EXPERT MEMBER
Respondent: Mr. Saurabh Balwani, Adv. for CPCB (Through VC)
Mr. Ankit Siwach, Adv. for Punjab PCB (Through VC)
ORDER
1. In this original application, registered suo motu, the Tribunal is examining the issue of illegal sand mining in Swan River.
2. The OA has been registered on the basis of the report relating to the closure of the bridge on the swan river connected Nangal with Garhshankar due to indiscriminate illegal sand mining in the area concerned.
3. The reports dated 24.08.2024 have been filed by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) stating that the site was inspected in July 2024 and no illegal sand mining was noticed.
4. It is undisputed that in the month of July 2024, the monsoon season had already started resulting into flooding of the area. Hence, there was no possibility of detecting any illegal sand mining. However, Annexure 5 filed alongwith the report of the CPCB reveals that as many 1 as six FIRs were registered in the year 2024 for illegal mining and the details of impounded vehicles reveal that even the Poclain machines were used for the said illegal mining which was seized.
5. The reports so filed by the PPCB and CPCB have been adopted by the Deputy Commissioner, Rupnagar.
6. It is not in dispute that by obtaining the satellite images for the period excluding the monsoon period, the extent of illegal mining in the area concerned can be ascertained. Hence, we direct the CPCB to obtain the satellite images of the stretch concerned of last 5 years, excluding the monsoon period, analyse them and ascertain the extent of illegal sand mining specially 1000 meter both side of the bridge which was damaged in July 2023.
7. The CPCB may complete this exercise within six weeks and file a fresh report by e-mail at [email protected] preferably in the form of searchable PDF/OCR Support PDF and not in the form of Image PDF.
8. List on 04.12.2024.
Prakash Shrivastava, CP Sudhir Agarwal, JM Arun Kumar Tyagi, JM Dr. Afroz Ahmad, EM August 28, 2024 Original Application No. 553/2024 dv 2