CHENNAI: In what comes as good news for environmentalists and advocates, the Southern Zone Bench of the National Green Tribunal was reopened on Monday, after a gap of nearly two years. The tribunal is a specialised body, established for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and make polluters compensate for the damages caused.
The Southern Zone covers Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka and Union Territories of Puducherry and Lakshadweep.
Judicial member Justice K Ramakrishnan and expert member Saibal Dasgupta are assigned to sit at the southern bench of the NGT. Chairperson of NGT Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel was also present on Monday during the reopening.
The Bench heard nine cases on Monday, of which one was related to widening the Highway from Chennai to Tirupathi. For the 127 km-long project, 10,000 adult trees were axed. But the petitioner submitted that the authorities failed to plant ten saplings for each adult tree that was axed.
In response, the National Highway authority informed the bench that Rs 1 crore has already been handed over to the Tamil Nadu Forest Department to plant the saplings. The bench disposed the case, but stated that the petitioner may approach the court if there were any issues in the number of trees planted.
Currently, about 300 cases are pending in the Southern Bench. AK Goel said that they were considering developing infrastructure at Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana, to hear cases in the said states through video conferencing, once in a week.
“With the bench shut since January 2018, it was very difficult for us to argue a case. For the last two years, we had to approach the High Court, which would redirect us to NGT and we had to travel till Delhi to approach the Principal Bench. It will now be easy for litigants to approach NGT and enable speedy disposal of cases,” said advocate MR Gokul Krishnan.
Spreading across
AK Goel said that they were considering developing infrastructure at Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana, to hear cases in the said states through video conferencing, once in a week.