In its first meeting held over the course of two days on August 12 and 13, 2014, the Board had cleared the majority of the 140 projects that were tabled. The new members of the Board included only a small subset of the required members as stipulated under the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Act of 2002, despite the vociferous protests of wildlife activists. This diluted Board was seen as an attempt by the reigning government to allow easy clearances for environmentally disastrous projects.
Outraged by the government's callous attitude toward our Protected Areas, Singh filed a Public Interest Litigation on August 9, demanding the reconstitution of the Board. The matter however, was only listed almost three weeks later on the 25th of the month. Despite the delay, the Supreme Court held firm to the spirit of the Wildlife Protection Act and labeled the decisions of the NBWL as ‘prima facie' illegal and ordered a hold on all the 100 plus clearances that were given at the meeting. On the same day, an SC order also deemed all coal block allocations after 1992 as illegal.
A bench of Justices J.S. Khehar, J. Chelameswar and A.K. Sikri agreed that the notification was not in sync with Section 5A of the Wildlife Protection Act. When amicus curiae A.D.N. Rao supported the points raised by the petitioner, the bench wrote in their order "We permit the board to function but any decision taken by it shall not be given effect to till further orders."
While successive governments have displayed their complete irreverence for the country's natural heritage, the Supreme Court has been the lone institution to uphold the integrity of our Protected Areas.
Commending the notice, senior conservationist Belinda Wright said, “The new government came in with a lot of promise, and with a clear mandate to "nurture the environment ... in addition to protecting the existing forests and wildlife reserves". We need to do just that; India's remarkable natural heritage urgently needs to be protected and the few remaining wildlife areas secured. In essence, the government needs to do for wildlife what was done for the lions of Gujarat."
Author: Cara Tejpal.
