The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal has observed that in the guise of using provisions of the National Disaster Management Act, the Kerala government is trying to undertake in-stream mining of Pampa river, in the guise of desiliting, without getting necessary clearances from the Forest Department. However, it allowed the government to desilt the river under principles of precaution.

The Bench made the observation in a case taken up suo moto by the Tribunal based on a report in The Hindu last week. The report said that the Kerala Clay and Ceramic Product Ltd in Kannur was roped into to removed huge deposits of sand accumulated in the Pampa river, to avert chances of more devastating floods downstream of Sabarimala.

The bench said it was brought to the Tribunal’s notice that last year, under a similar situation when sand and silt was removed from the river, permission was sought from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

“Considering the fact that monsoon is approaching soon and the government may anticipate overflow of rivers due to rain during monsoon, we don’t want to stop the normal work of desilting of the rivers under the precautionary principle to avoid floods in the State,” the Bench of Justice K. Ramakrishnan and expert member Saibal Dasgupta said.

The Bench, however, said there was a substantial question of environment which required interference of the Tribunal.

The Tribunal appointed a joint committee comprising a senior office of the regional office of the MoEF & CC, Bengaluru; a senior officer not below the rank of Chief Conservator of Forest; the District Collector, Pathanamthitta; a senior officer from Department of Mining and Geology; Member Secretary, State Disaster Management Authority, Kerala and the Divisional Forest Officer Pathanamthitta to enquire into the issue and, considering the seriousness of the issue, submit a factual and action-taken report, if there is any violation found, including imposition of environmental compensation.