SC clears ‘Chardham’ highway project

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, August 16

The ‘Chardham’ highway project to connect the four holiest places in Uttarakhand through 900-km all-weather roads has cleared legal hurdles as the Supreme Court has given it a go ahead.

A Bench of Justice Rohinton F Nariman and Justice Surya Kant modified the National Green Tribunal’s September order on Friday and asked the Ministry of Environment and Forest to constitute a fresh high-powered committee (HPC) by August 22 to address environmental concerns.

HPC will also assess the environmental degradation—loss of forest lands, trees, green cover, water resources etc.— on the wildlife and will direct mitigation measures, the court said.

An NGO called Citizen for Green Doon had petitioned the top court against NGT’s on September 26 order giving conditional approval to the project in view of larger public interest. The project would cause an irreversible damage to regional ecology, the NGO had contended.  The NGT had set up a panel headed by a former Uttarakhand High Court Judge to monitor the project.

In its order, the top court added representatives from Physical Research Laboratory under the government's Department of Space, Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India, MoEF (from Dehradun regional office) and Defence Ministry to the committee and asked it to submit its recommendations in four months.

"The committee shall consider the cumulative and independent impact of the Chardham project on the entire Himalayan valleys and for that purpose, the HPC will give directions to conduct Environmental Impact Assessment by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH)," it said.

The HPC should consider whether revision of the full Chardham project should at all take place with a view to minimize the adverse impact on the environment and social life, it said, adding it will identify the sites where quarrying has started, recommend measures required to stabilise the area and for safe disposal of muck.

The HPC will also suggest the areas in which afforestation should be taken and the kind of saplings to be planted and in case of non-survival of any sapling, further plantation should be done and compensatory afforestation should be ten times the number of trees cut, the top court said.

In Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone—Gangotri to Uttarkashi—the HPC will make special provisions in its report keeping in mind the guidelines given under the notification of the Bhagirathi ESZ to avoid violations and any environmental damage, the court said.