Paridhi Arya
Published on April 20, 2022 at 14:20 IST
The Division Bench of Supreme Court of Justice D Y Chandrchud and Justice Aniruddha Bose has passed the project of Delhi- Dehradun Expressway.
Court has asked to strictly observe compensatory afforestation and steps to mitigate the adverse effect to Environment from National Green Tribunal.
The Bench had replaced C P Goyal the Director General (forest) in Union Ministry as the head of expert panel earlier National Green Tribunal has appointed Uttarakhand Secretary for the same.
The Non-Governmental Organisation who filed the Petition has objected the inclusion of Anil Prakash Joshi who is environmentalist and founder of Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conversation Organisation but the Court rejected this Objection.
Vijaya Dashmana a renowned eco-restoration practitioner who is known for conversion 380 acre barren land into Aravalli Biodiversity Park included in the Panel.
This Expert Panel will look into mitigating measures such as height of the flyovers or underpass and compensatory afforestation.
Citizens for Green Doon Non-Governmental Organisation has filed Petition in National Green Tribunal because in Delhi-Doon Expressway there is a passage of 20 km from Ganeshpur in UP to Asharodi in Uttarakhand where 11,000 trees are being cut for the project.
The has made a Committee consisting of 12 members from different areas such as Government officials, Centre Pollution Control Board, Wildlife Institute in India and Forest Research Institute.
The National Green Tribunal has stated that this Highway is important as it connect different States to National Capital.
The National Green Tribunal pointed out “the capacity augmentation of this highway is not only important for connecting the State Capital of Uttarakhand with National Capital, but is also vital for strategic defence purposes for timely and seamless movement of Army/Warheads to higher reaches of Himalayas”.
