The Economic Times , Thursday, January 21, 2016

Correspondent :

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday said conservation of tigers was important but could not be at the cost of movement of human beings from one place to another and general economic development of the country. The court was critical of NGOs which rush to challenge development projects, in this case four¬laning of the 37km stretch of NH¬7 between Nagpur and Jabalpur passing through Pench tiger reserve. The issue had led to a tug of war between the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court, which had suomotu taken up the issue of widening of NH¬7, and the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which claimed to have sole jurisidiction over environmental issues. Both passed orders that ran counter to each other, leaving the officials of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in a Catch¬22 situation. If they obeyed one, they committed contempt of another. The SC settled the conflict and said the HC would be the forum to deal with the road widening issue. A bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and justices AK Sikri and R Banumathi was highly critical of NGOs, including Conservation Action Forum, which had challenged the road¬widening project on the ground that it would seriously impede the traditional migration routes of tigers in the reserve. The bench said, "Tigers are important. But what happens to the movement of traffic? It is not the first time that a national highway is passing through a reserved forest. We are for protecting tigers. Tell us what are the mitigating factors that could be implemented by the project proponent so that tiger migration routes are not impeded." The bench told the NGOs to go before the HC and inform it about the measures that needed to be taken for conservation of tigers. Attorney general MukulRohatgi said the HC had already asked the NHAI to construct three flyovers of a total length of 1.8 km so as to minimise disturbance of tiger migration routes. The SC asked the NGOs why they were the first to move court challenging a development project but seldom moved court against rampant poaching which was killing more tigers than road traffic. "Have you all filed any PIL against poaching? Why don't you go and work with those people working at the ground level to protect tigers from poachers? You jump to litigation whenever there is a development project. File a PIL on how to prevent poaching. Real danger to tiger is not from road traffic but poachers," the bench said. The NGOstried to convince the court that the NGT was the right forum to deal with the validity of environmental clearance and requested the court to permit them to pursue their pending petitions in the green tribunal. The Supreme Court refused, saying, "How can we allow the NGT to go ahead with the same issue when the HC is hearing the matter? There cannot be conflict in the justice delivery system."

SOURCE : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/environment/developmental-issues/development-more-important-than-tigers-supreme-court-says/articleshow/50662141.cms?prtpage=1