An area of 100 metres from the edge of the Ganga between Haridwar and Unnao has been declared a “No Development Zone”, with the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday prohibiting dumping of waste within 500 metres of the river.
An environment compen- sation of ₹50,000 will be imposed on anyone dumping waste in the river. The NGT also directed the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand governments to formulate guidelines for religious activities on the ghats of the Ganga and its tributaries.
The order said, “Till the demarcation of floodplains and identification of permissible and non-permissible activities by the State government, we direct that 100 meters from the edge of the river would be treated as no development/construction zone between Haridwar to Unnao in Uttar Pradesh.”
No-development zones are zones where no construction, including commercial or residential buildings, can come up.
Giving its verdict on a 1985 PIL petition of noted environment activist and lawyer M.C. Mehta — which was transferred to the NGT from the Supreme Court in 2014 — a Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar noted that all authorities concerned should complete various projects, including a sewage treatment plant and cleaning drains, within two years.
“The Uttar Pradesh government is duty-bound to shift tanneries, within six weeks, from Jajmau in Kanpur to leather parks in Unnao or any other place it considers appropriate,” the Bench said.
The court has also appointed a supervisory committee, headed by the Secretary of the Water Resources Ministry and comprising IIT professors and officials of the Uttar Pradesh government to oversee implementation of the directions passed in its 543-page verdict. The committee is to submit reports at regular intervals.
Groundwater extraction
The Bench further noted that all industrial units falling in the catchments of the Ganga should be stopped from indiscriminate groundwater extraction.
The green court reiterated its earlier order of ban on mechanical mining in the Ganga and said “no in-stream mechanical mining is permitted and even the mining on the floodplain should be semi-mechanical and preferably more manual”.