Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Dec 5: High Court today sought views of amicus on alleged violations and encroachments taken place in the wetlands of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh UTs notified in Ramsar sites.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice Moksha Kazmi directed the amicus to file his view and the suggestions with regard to certain alleged violations and encroachments which have allegedly taken place in the Ramsar Wetland Sites.
The direction followed after the report submitted by the Wild Life Warden, Kashmir Region Srinagar before the court. Amicus said the same is quite comprehensive and voluminous to which he sought time to file views on the same.
Considering the importance of the matter and attached to the issue, the bench said that the failure to file the report would be of serious lapse on part of the authorities in view of entrusting the monitoring of the issue by the Supreme Court to this Court.
Regional Wildlife Warden Kashmir Region Srinagar in his report has submitted that out of 75 sites J&K has five Ramsar Sites which include Wular Lake, Hokersar, Shallabubh, Hygam and Surinsar-Mansar Lakes situated in Bandipora-Baramull, Ganderbal-Srinagar and Udhampur.
Court has been informed that major actions have been taken for these sites and process of installing Boundary Pillars, demarcation, removal of plantation, cleanliness drives, de-silting etc of these wetlands is in process, demarcation and 3600 Kanals of land is retrieved from the encroachments.
Court has already warned for taking appropriate penal action against the authorities responsible for not filing the status report by or before the next date of hearing. Court has also directed for indicating the present condition of Anchar Lake in the status report.
The wetlands which have been covered under the Ramsar Convention are Tso Moriri and Tso Kar in Ladakh UT also.
It is after the directions from the Supreme Court in the year 2017, the High Court had treated an affidavit filed by the petitioner before the apex court regarding certain wetlands which were covered under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands as PIL.
Chief Justices of the concerned High Courts were under request to treat the affidavit as a suo moto PIL and, if necessary, appoint an amicus curia to assist the court so as to ensure that the Ramsar Convention sites within their jurisdiction were properly maintained.
The public interest demands that not only the Wetlands covered under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, but also the Wetlands which have been identified by the State Government and are an essential part of the highly protective ecosystem services and biodiversity needs protection and inclusion in the full range of wetland biodiversity and ecosystem services in development planning and decision making sectors.
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