Chennai: The Madras high court has directed the state government to inform the court as to why the bio-diversity management committees have not been formed in the state, whether a bio-diversity register is prepared for the state and within what time frame the Tree Act will be enacted in the state.
A division bench comprising Justices T.S.Sivagnanam and Bhavani Subbaroyan directed Government Pleader to get instructions from the appropriate authorities for the above three queries and posted to November 1, further hearing of a batch of petitions, challenging the land acquisition proceedings for the multi-crore Chennai-Salem Green Corridor project.
When the case came up for hearing, senior counsel N.L.Rajah, appearing for one of the petitioner Anbumani Ramadoss, a member of parliament, referred to newspaper reports and submitted that Tamil Nadu is lagging behind the management of bio-diversity and as per reports only 13 bio-diversity management committees have been formed in the state whereas in Madhya Pradesh, 23,743 committees have been formed in 2013 itself and when enquired with the officials, it was informed that soon after the local body elections, the government would expedite the process of forming such committees, he added.
The bench said, “The question is, if an application is to be made for environmental clearance, the project proponent has to answer the question 3.1clause of Form 1A of the notification of Ministry of Environment and Forests dated September 14, 2006, which calls upon the applicant to state whether there is any threat of the project to bio-diversity. If bio-diversity register is not maintained in the state of Tamil Nadu, then how would the project proponent would reply to such a question and why such a delay in constituting such committees. At this juncture, it is relevant to point out that in terms of section 41 of the Bio-diversity Act, every local body shall constitute a bio-diversity management committee. Thus, it is mandatory under the central legislation to constitute a management committee at Panchayat level and it appears that election to the local bodies can have no impact on constitution of such committees”.
Referring to felling of trees, situated close to the proposed alignment, the bench said, “We are informed that the Tree Act has not been enacted in the state of Tamil Nadu, though it appears that certain NGOs who were interested in the early enactment of such a statute had even prepared a draft Act”.
