Widening of NH-7: NGT pulls NTCA for delay in reply

The National Green Tribunal today pulled up the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) for not filing its response and causing undue delay on the pleas against the clearance given to fell trees for widening of National Highway-7 (Mansar-Khawasa) road in Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border.
A bench, headed by Justice U D Salvi, slammed NTCA for its lackadaisical approach and granted it one last opportunity to file its reply while directing its Member-Secretary to be personally present before it on July 31, the next date of hearing.
During the hearing, the counsel for NTCA contended that the draft reply was pending with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and therefore it could not file its reply on time.

The Tribunal was hearing the pleas of three NGOs--Srushti Paryavaran Mandal, Conservation Action Trust and Nature Conservation Society which contended that widening of road would cause irreparable damage to the Kanha-Pench Tiger reserve.
The NGOs had stated that National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) permission was mandatory under Wildlife Protection Act 1972 for the widening of NH-7, which was not followed.
The Tribunal had on July 3 slammed MoEF for relaxing the condition that no National Board for Wildlife permission was required for widening of NH-7, which is adjacent to Pench Tiger Reserve and Mansinghdeo Wildlife Sanctuary.

It had said that under "what authority of law" the Environment Ministry had relaxed the condition while terming the act as making "mockery of law".

The green panel had on May 6 ordered stay on felling of trees and directed Maharashtra government not to cut trees.
The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court had allowed tree felling, terming the green body as "some Tribunal created under some law".