Plastic consumed by cattles: SC asks Centre to setup committee

The Supreme Court today directed the Centre to constitute a committee for implementating environment protection laws and consider prohibiting the use, sale and disposal of plastic bags which are consumed by stray cattle making them suffer and die a painful death.
A bench of Justices V Gopala Gowda and Adarsh Kumar Goel said the issue was not adversarial litigation and asked the petitioner and other parties to give suggestions to the committee to be constituted by the Centre.
It also directed that the Committee should consider the suggestions of states, union territories and Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) and prayers in PIL filed by NGO Karuna Society for Animals and Nature for ensuring implementation of the rules framed under the Environment (Protection) Act.

The apex court while disposing off the plea said the committee would also monitor implementation of the law and of the suggestions given by different stakeholders.
During the hearing, counsel for the NGO said stray cattle that are left to fend for themselves, ate out of the garbage mounds and ingested huge amounts of plastic in the process.
It sought appropriate direction to Centre for prohibiting the use, sale and disposal of plastic bags in all municipalities and municipal corporations. It also sought direction to all States and civic bodies to phase out in a time-bound manner the 'open garbage disposal system' and remove open garbage receptacles.

The NGO sought implementation of door-to-door garbage collection under different civic body area and directions to ensure that waste storage facilities are built and managed in a way that animals are not allowed to move around in the vicinity of such facilities.
Earlier, the apex court had asked the state governments to be sympathetic towards animals by banning plastic bags which are consumed by stray cattle and said that they should be concerned about the pain and sufferings of animals who consume these bags on streets.