CHENNAI: The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Friday directed Kamarajar Port Limited (KPL) to pay Rs 4 crore as environmental compensation for violations committed in the ecologically sensitive Ennore Creek.
The bench, comprising judicial member Justice K Ramakrishnan and expert member Saibal Dasgupta, has asked the KPL to deposit the amount within a period of two months with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
KPL had filed a review application seeking modification to NGT's order dated January 20, 2020 wherein an interim environmental compensation of Rs 8.35 crore was levied. This amount has now been revised to Rs 4 crore.
However, while disposing of the review application, the NGT bench had held KPL accountable for loss of mangroves due to illegal dumping of dredged materials in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) area of Ennore Creek. It relied upon the NGT-appointed joint committee, which used satellite images to establish that mangroves were indeed destroyed.
"Loss of mangroves will have a great impact on the environment and a person responsible for destruction of the same will be liable to pay environmental compensation," the judgement says.
The joint committee also says elements such as magnesium, aluminium, iron, potassium, chromium, lead and calcium are present in the soil in very high concentrations in all dumpsites. "These elements are found in high concentrations at a depth of 100 cm below the ground indicating that the metals have leached from the dredged material dumpsite. Since such high concentrations are present in the soil, there is a possibility of contamination of ground water and also surrounding surface water bodies," says the report, which has been accessed by The New Indian Express.
KPL in its review application argued that the joint committee has not taken samples in a scientific manner and the materials found in the contaminated site were not being produced by the port and as such it was not responsible for the alleged contamination. However, NGT has not accepted any of KPL's objections and went ahead levying environmental costs.
Sunil Paliwal, Chairman cum Managing Director of Kamarajar Port, told The New Indian Express, "Our legal team is studying the NGT judgement and the next course of action will appropriately be taken. I think our review application has fairly put forth the port's contention. We can't be solely penalised when there are so many industries around in the area. Whatever dredged material we had dumped was removed."
With regard to the presence of heavy metals, Paliwal said the reference samples used by the joint committee for analysis were collected 9 km away from the port, which is "unscientific and fallacious". He added, "The values of heavy metals mentioned by the committee in its report were within the permissible limits as against standards prescribed by the Union Environment Ministry. In fact, the values were less than what is permitted for residential areas."