From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI: In a major embarrassment to the Centre, the Supreme Court has condemned the government for not taking adequate steps to protect wetlands in several states, including Meghalaya, and even threatened to jail the Union Secretary for Environment Ministry.
A bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta on Thursday got infuriated when told that its order had not been complied with. It said the Centre is not complying with its order to frame rules for preservation of wetlands.
The bench noted that though the government talked about its commitment to the Paris Accord on climate change, it was not concerned about environment protection in the country.
“You have taken us for a ride and you are making proceedings in the Supreme Court a joke. It seems that the Centre is not bothered about our orders. There is a complete lack of seriousness,” the bench said.
The court warned that it would send the environment secretary behind bars if the government failed to give a road map within a week for conservation of wetlands.
The state wise distribution showed that Lakshadweep had 96.12 per cent of its area under wetlands followed by Andaman and Nicobar Islands (18.52 per cent), Daman and Diu (18.46 per cent), Gujarat (17.56 per cent), Puducherry (12.88 per cent), West Bengal (12.48 per cent), Assam (9.74 per cent), Tamil Nadu (6.92 per cent), Goa (5.76 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (5.26 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (5.16 per cent).
The least extent of wetlands was observed in Mizoram (0.66 per cent), Haryana (0.86 per cent), Delhi (0.93 per cent), Sikkim (1.05 per cent), Nagaland (1.30 per cent) and Meghalaya (1.34 per cent).
The court has been examining the issue since 2001 after some environmentalists approached it. Several orders were passed since then. It had directed the Centre to take immediate steps to protect around 2 lakh wetlands mapped by ISRO through satellite imagery across the country.
The Supreme Court on Thursday reminded the Centre that being a signatory to the 1971 International Convention on Wetlands; it was bound to frame policy for their preservation. “We are not talking about a small issue but the international convention. How will you face the international community and what will you tell them about its implementation,” the court asked and slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on the Centre.
Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan and lawyer Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, said the Centre had been consistently flouting court orders and pleaded that action be taken against officials. They said the government had released more than Rs 900 crore over the years but the expenditure was never audited.
The Centre’s counsel, Ashok Panda, said the court should seek explanation from states on how they had spent the money but the bench was not satisfied.
It, however, granted one week to the Centre to take a clear stand on how it intended to protect wetlands. It said the government’s response was unsatisfactory and no progress was made such it passed the order.
A wetland is an area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. Wetlands play a key role in water purification, flood control, carbon sink and shoreline stability, besides nurturing a diversity of flora and fauna.
In April, the apex court had set a deadline of June-end for the government to notify Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, but the Centre sought six more months to implement the law.
In 2011, ISRO had prepared a national wetlands atlas on the basis of satellite imagery and 2,01,503 wetlands were mapped. Total wetland area was estimated at 15.26 million hectares (mha), or 4.63 per cent of the total country’s area.