COIMBATORE: The Madras High Court has directed the state government, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation commissioner and the district forest officer (DFO) of Coimbatore Forest Division to extend all support to experts from Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, to study Valankulam and Ukkadam Lake to determine whether the corporation’s development activities are detrimental to the nestlings or other activities of the birds and their life.
A special division bench of Justices N Sathish Kumar and D Bharatha Chakravarthy asked the experts at Salim Ali Centre to also suggest measures to make development more eco-friendly and biodiversity-friendly, which will not affect any of the activities of the migratory birds or the inhabitant birds, and submit a report after two months to the court during the next hearing on February 20.
"The experts will study the existence, migration and habitat of the bird species that exist at and visit these lakes, and ascertain the purpose and needs of the various species and consider whether the development activities that are being carried out by the corporation are in any manner detrimental to the nestling or other activities of the birds and their life," the court observed.
The directions that are to be given by the court will depend on the expert report.
"The city corporation, in its counter affidavit, admitted that there are nesting sites on the island that are left untouched and is not in any manner interfered with by human activities. The entire development activities in these two lakes have been done with an anthropocentric idea, and there was no scientific report from any environmental point of view, more specifically, from an ecocentric point of view, as to what are all the activities are that can be carried out by way of sustainable development and what are all the activities are that should not be carried out so as not to interfere with the habitat of birds," the bench observed.
The orders were passed after the corporation filed a detailed counter affidavit based on a petition filed by Chennai-based activist, Muralidharan, who sought the court to stop all the commercial activities and to remove the solar panel placed in Ukkadam Lake and Valankulam Lake.
The corporation, in its reply, stated that solar panels had been floated on just 0.2 acres, constituting 0.05% of the total area of Ukkadam Lake, and that they do not in any way block the sunlight for the aquatic species.