Thursday, 12 August 2021 | PNS | Nainital
Hearing on a public interest litigation against the state government’s denotification of the Shivalik elephant reserve the division bench of the Uttarakhand high court stressed on the need to achieve balance between environmental conservation and development. The court asked the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) about the steps being taken to save the trees along the Delhi-Dehradun national highway. The bench also asked the petitioner about how cutting 2,500 Sal trees will cause irreparable environmental damage and whether this damage cannot be compensated by planting even more trees. Stating this, the division bench comprising chief justice RS Chauhan and justice Alok Kumar Verma set the next date of hearing on the PIL for August 25.
Dehradun resident Reenu Paul had filed the PIL stating that the state wildlife board had decided to denotify the Shivalk elephant reserve in November 2020 for the proposed expansion of the Dehradun airport. The petitioner has challenged the denotification in the high court. The court had earlier ordered a stay on the denotification. The petitioner had further questioned how the state wildlife board could approve the denotification of the Shivalik elephant reserve, spread across about 5,404 square kilometre area citing factors including the fact that this area is used by the pachyderms to travel between here and Nepal.
