Eco-centric judicial observations welcomed amidst alarming forest loss in India: Appeal for stronger action

By A Representative

In a heartfelt letter addressed to the Chairperson and Members of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), a concerned citizen and seasoned power sector professional, Mr. Shankar Sharma, has expressed appreciation for recent eco-centric observations made by the Hon’ble Supreme Court, while also urging the judiciary and regulatory bodies to take more assertive and systemic actions to curb the accelerating ecological degradation in India.

Citing a remark by a judge that “Indian Supreme Court was the first to shift from a human-centric to an eco-centric approach,” Sharma called this a welcome development for environmentally conscious citizens. He referred to numerous recent judicial statements such as “Cutting large number of trees worse than killing a human being”, “Climate crisis impacts citizens’ right to life”, and “No religion permits such brutal tree felling” as silver linings in an otherwise bleak environmental landscape.

However, Sharma laments that such powerful remarks have not translated into effective preventive measures. Highlighting alarming statistics—including the diversion of over 1,73,000 hectares of forest land for non-forestry purposes between 2014-15 and 2023-24, and the loss of over 46,000 sq km of forest land in a decade—he points to a systemic failure to heed scientific warnings about deforestation and climate change.

He further criticizes the approval of destructive projects such as the Kaiga Nuclear Plant expansion and the Karnataka-Goa transmission line, despite significant civil society objections. Sharma warns that upcoming pumped storage projects in the ecologically sensitive Sharavathi and Varahi river valleys could result in the loss of hundreds of hectares of tropical rainforest, while viable alternatives like Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) remain underutilized.

In his appeal, Sharma calls upon the NGT and judiciary to go beyond oral observations and proactively deny forest diversion proposals, especially those affecting protected areas, until India reaches the 33% forest cover target outlined in the National Forest Policy. He proposes a moratorium on forest land diversion for any purpose until this target is achieved and emphasizes the need for a 10% land area coverage within Protected Areas.

Quoting the UN Secretary-General’s warning on World Environment Day 2024—“The battle to secure the planet’s future will be won or lost in the next 18 months”—Sharma’s letter underscores the urgent need for policy shifts that prioritize ecological balance over short-term development.

The letter concludes with an offer of technical assistance from Mr. Sharma, an electrical engineer with over four decades of international experience in the power sector, to support the development of sustainable alternatives to ecologically destructive projects.

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