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Andhra High Court: Protect Forests for Future Generations
15 Jan
Summary
- Environmental protection is a duty of the state and citizens.
- Industries causing pollution must not operate unchecked.
- NGT rightly intervened in granting environmental clearance.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court recently underscored the critical importance of preserving environmental resources for future generations. Justices Ravi Nath Tilhari and Maheswara Rao Kuncheam dismissed a mining company's petition challenging a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order that had suspended its environmental clearance. The court affirmed that safeguarding the nation's forests is a shared duty of both the state and its citizens.
This pivotal decision stems from the NGT's November 15, 2021, order which halted the environmental clearance granted on April 16, 2020, to a silica sand mining project in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district. The NGT cited significant procedural and environmental lapses, directing a re-examination of the project, prompting the company to seek redressal from the high court.
The court found no jurisdictional error in the NGT's actions, recognizing its preventive and remedial roles in combating environmental degradation. The judgment reinforces that polluting industries cannot operate unchecked and emphasizes the need for a proper balance between environmental protection and sustainable development.
