“Statistics Won't Do Much, Show Results”: Andhra Pradesh High Court On 'Massive' Encroachment In Kolleru Wildlife Sanctuary

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the State to take action against illegal encroachment in the Kolleru Wild Life Sanctuary and file a status report on the same.

The bench was seized with a contempt case that arose out of the State's inaction in clearing the alleged illegal encroachments on the banks of the Kolluru Lake, which the Court had directed in an earlier PIL, which was disposed of in 2021.

The contempt applicant, who was the petitioner in that PIL had contended that the State through an official notification had demarcated the entire village of Agadalalanka village in Bhimodole Mandal as part of Kolleru Wild Life Sanctuary, and hence no encroachments could be made on the area. 

Dissuaded by the State's inability to clear the encroachments as directed by the Court, the petitioner initiated the present contempt proceedings, prompting the Court to reopen the PIL, recall their order of disposal and appoint two advocate commissioners to assess the concerned area and file a report.

Upon perusing the report and taking exception to the State's inability to clear the alleged encroachments, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice R. Raghunandan Rao ordered:

“Two issues come up for consideration.. one is the specific issue and the second is the larger issue, Agadalalanka (the village in which encroachment has been challenged in the present PIL) is the bed of the lake, what do you propose? The question is, why are you not taking any action? You will take another 6 months to conduct survey and file a report, first, you tell us how many people you have stopped. Form teams and stop the encroachment, what is the problem? Statistics won't do much, you need to show results. The encroachment is massive, and won’t happen overnight, file a status report in regards to the action taken.”

On the previous date of hearing, the Court had ordered the respondents to file a detailed affidavit to throw some light of certainty in regard to the encroachment.

The counsel on behalf of the defendants at the present hearing submitted that although he could not secure a full survey report, he was going to rely on a survey report which had been filed in a Suo Moto case taken up by the NGT (National Green Tribunal) concerning the same subject matter.

The respondents conceded to the argument that encroachment was taking place in violation of the G.O.Ms. No. 120. It was further submitted that the present PIL restricts its grievance to the extent of only one encroacher, however abstract of encroachment showed 17,000 acres of encroached land, by 54 villages.

The counsel on behalf of the respondent sought time to file a detailed survey report, dividing the encroachment, village-wise.

Accordingly, the Court directed the State to form teams to stop the alleged encroachment and file a status report regarding the same in Court. 

CC/1699/2022 & WP(PIL)/22/2022

Counsel for petitioner: Pillix Law Firm

Counsel for respondents: P Subash, GP For Forests, T V Jaggi Reddy