Gujarat High Court Issues Notice On PIL Against Illegal Salt Mining In Wild Ass Sanctuary

The Gujarat High Court has issued notice to the State on a PIL seeking urgent remedial legal action to curb non-forest activities of alleged illegal salt mining and illegal extraction of minerals, without requisite and legal permissions in the Wild Ass Sanctuary.

The division bench of the Acting Chief Justice A.J. Desai and Justice Biren Vaishnav further directed:

“The present petition which is in the nature of Public Interest and may affect various individual who may be carrying out different type of activities, the petitioners shall publish a notice Under Order 1 Rule 8 of Code of Civil Procedure about the present proceedings in a newspaper having wide circulation in vernacular language having wide circulation in the districts Surendranagar, Patan, Kutch, Morbi in the state of Gujarat giving 15 days clear notice about the next date of hearing.”

The petition filed before the court under Article 226 of the Constitution states that the illegal activities are carried being out rampantly and are destroying the entire Eco System in the Little Rann of Kutch i.e. the Wild Ass Sanctuary, contrary to the provisions of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972; the Indian Forest Act, 1927; the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980; the Forest (Conservation) Rules, 1981 and the Rules thereunder; Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and in contravention of various judgements of the Supreme Court.

The petition further highlighted the order dated September 23, 2020 of the NGT which granted injunction against grant of lease for salt industry within the 10 km area from the said Sanctuary and also against the construction of sand embankment for salt industry as same are obstructing or misdirecting the natural flow of rivers which causes serious impact on environment.

The petitioner alleged in the petition that illegal salt mining activity has flourished in the area since last two and half years, which was protected since years.

It was further alleged that illegal salt mining activity is being carried out with the aid of heavy machineries and is illegally encroaching upon lakhs of hectares of land of the said Sanctuary.

“there is illegal encroachment within the said Sanctuary and illegal activities are being carried out which is obstructing the flow of the river going into the dessert and thereby destroying the natural habitat of the wild animals”, the petitioner further added.

It was further alleged in the petition that the action of state in not taking steps to protect and improve the environment is the violation of Article 48A (Protection and improvement of environment and safeguarding of forests and wild life), Article 47 (Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health) and Article 51A(g) (to protect and improve the natural environment including forests, lakes, rivers and wild life, and to have compassion for living creatures) of the Constitution of India.

The court issued notice to the State returnable on April 24, 2023.

Case Title: Kanaiyalal Vijayashankar Rajgor v. State of Gujarat

Coram: The Acting Chief Justice A.J. Desai and Justice Biren Vaishnav

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