The Supreme Court of India on Friday observed that destruction of wildlife habitats in protected areas would attract offences and penalties under multiple environmental laws, taking serious note of illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary.
A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said officials of departments in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh could be held “vicariously liable” for aiding and abetting the destruction of aquatic habitats by allowing illegal mining to continue.
The court was hearing a suo motu case on illegal sand mining and its impact on endangered aquatic wildlife in the sanctuary, a 5,400 sq km tri-state protected area spread across the Chambal river basin.
The Bench issued notices to the governments of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, as well as the Centre, seeking responses. It also directed that notice be served to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Central Empowered Committee.
“For the present, we may observe that every act of destruction of wildlife habitat in a protected area would attract offences and penalties under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, the Environment (Protection) Act, the Forest (Conservation) Act, the Biological Diversity Act and the Indian Forest Act as well as other applicable statutes …,” the Bench noted.
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It added that officials from forest, mining, water resources and police departments could face liability due to “lethargy and inaction” in curbing illegal sand mining.
The sanctuary, also known as the National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary, is home to endangered species such as the gharial, the red-crowned roof turtle and the Ganges river dolphin.
The court noted that reports highlighted extensive destruction of aquatic habitats and also referred to the de-notification of around 732 hectares from the sanctuary in Rajasthan as part of a boundary rationalisation exercise.
The Bench said it would pass detailed directions after receiving responses from the states and concerned authorities. It has posted the matter for further hearing on April 2.
Earlier, the apex court had taken suo motu cognisance of the issue on March 13, flagging that even areas where gharials were recently released had come under the impact of illegal mining.
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