National Green Tribunal Rejects Taxi Union's Plea To Increase The Number Of Vehicles Allowed To Rohtang Pass

The Him Anchal Taxi Union had filed an application to modify the Tribunal's 2015 order, which had limited the number of vehicles allowed in the Manali and Rohtang pass areas of Himachal Pradesh in order to address environmental degradation

The Union claimed that now there is availability of more parking spaces at Gulaba, Marhi and Rohtang pass.

The bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel(Chairperson), Justice Sudhir Agarwal (Judicial Member), Dr. A.Senthil Vel (Expert Member) said that, “Data of air quality merely because of restricted number of vehicles situation is better cannot be ground to presume that increased number of vehicles will be sustainable”.

The argument was made that the completion of the Atal Tunnel and an increase in tourism activities have made the current number of vehicles permitted by the Tribunal inadequate and in need of an increase.

The NGT opined that the opening of Atal Tunnel or availability of parking space did not change the situation which led to passing of previous orders by the Tribunal.

“Opinion of some expert relied upon can not be treated as conclusive to revisit the orders passed on consideration of entirety of material based on reports of experts and on due consideration, after contest between the parties,” observed the Tribunal.

Background

In 2010, the proceedings began after a letter was sent to the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, expressing concern about the environmental damage caused by the 4000-5000 vehicles that were making round trips between Manali and Rohtang Pass."

Thereafter,the Division Bench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court directed the Chief Secretary of H.P. to develop an appropriate proposal to regulate vehicular movement in the area.

In 2013,the matter was transferred to NGT for further consideration.

The Tribunal noted that, “heavy unregulated tourism in the area was resulting in degradation of the environment. Extent of tourism was noted to be 11 lakhs visitors annually.”

In 2015, the Tribunal ruled that the number and type of vehicles permitted in the area needed to be regulated. As a result, it directed that the number of vehicles allowed to travel to Rohtang Pass for tourism purposes be limited to 1000 per day, on a first-come, first-served basis.

“Out of 1000 vehicles allowed to pass every day as afore- indicated, 600 would be Petrol while 400 would be Diesel Vehicles”, it had further ordered.

In 2016, the Tribunal modified its previous order and allowed 800 petrol vehicles to travel to Rohtang Pass per day, instead of the 600 originally specified. However, the Tribunal maintained the limit of 400 diesel vehicles per day.

In 2017, the Tribunal once again modified its order and allowed an additional 100 cars to travel to Rohtang Pass, with 60% of them being petrol cars and the remaining 40% being diesel cars.

Subsequently, an appeal was filed in the Supreme Court challenging the 2016 and 2017 orders, which was disposed of in 2023 without any view expressed on the merits of the case.

The recent order has rejected the plea for making any further modifications.

Case Title: Court on its own Motion v.State of H.P. & Ors.

Counsel for Applicant: Ms. Bhakti Pasrija (in M.A 29/2023)

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