Supreme Court Constitutes Expert Committee to Find a Solution for Unregulated Entry of Pilgrims into Core Areas of National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries

“The perusal of an affidavit by the deputy forest conservator and Sariska’s deputy field director reveals that the state government is attempting to find out a solution to the problem of lakhs of people visiting the temple situated in the core area. However, for finding a complete solution, it would be necessary that a body of experts sits together and comes out with an everlasting solution.”

A division bench comprising Justices BR Gavai, JB Pardiwala, and Sanjay Kumar was hearing an interlocutory application filed in the T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad case, an omnibus forest protection matter in which the top court issued the longest-standing continuing mandamus in the field of environmental litigation. Since 1996, when the writ jurisdiction of the court was invoked by a plea to protect the Nilgiris forest, numerous orders have been passed on a vast array of issues, such as deforestation, logging, mining, compensatory afforestation, and endangered species, with the court stepping beyond its traditional role of interpreting the law, and taking over day-to-day governance of Indian forests. In 2002, a Central Empowered Committee (CEC) was also constituted for monitoring the implementation of the court’s orders and bringing to its attention, incidents of non-compliance.

Amicus curiae K Parameshwar told the apex court today that the ingress of pilgrims in the core areas of wildlife sanctuaries posed a grave problem by making it difficult for instances of poaching to be brought under check. “The primary problem is that two-wheelers are permitted inside the core area. In two-wheelers, there is no radio-tagging, no control. This is one of the principal reasons of poaching,” the counsel added, before saying:

“A couple of lakhs of devotees visit the temples on some days, particularly during the month of Savaan. This is during the monsoon season, which is the breeding season, when most sanctuaries are closed. There are such places of religious worship inside sanctuaries and national parks, across India. The rule that the sanctuary or national park will remain closed for monsoon does not apply in these cases, owing to government circulars to that effect. For instance, the Rajasthan government has issued a circular permitting devotees to enter during auspicious days of Savaan. There are other such instances – Sabarimala, Tirupati, Srisailam, to name a few.”

Rajasthan's additional advocate-general Manish Singhvi told the bench, “While we want devotees to come to the temple, we do not want the sanctuary to be damaged. We are working on this in a phased manner. Give us four to six weeks of time to come back with a plan on how devotees can visit these temples without causing harm to the environment.” Additional Solicitor-General for India Aishwarya Bhati suggested that the court issue a direction requiring representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC), National Tiger Conservation Authority, and Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun sit with appropriate officers of the state government to find a solution.

The bench acceded to the union law officer’s request and directed for the constitution of an expert committee comprising the principal chief conservator of forest, the chief wildlife warden of Rajasthan additional forest secretary, a joint secretary rank officer of the MoEFCC, and a representative of the NTCA.

On an earlier occasion as well, the apex court had expressed its concern over the unregulated ingress of devotees inside the core areas of national parks and sanctuaries. A bench headed by Justice Gavai had held:

“In many of the forests in such protected areas, certain places of worship are situated where the devotees come in thousands and lakhs. On one hand, it is not possible for the administration to restrain such devotees from visiting the places of worship. On the other hand, such uncontrolled visits of the devotees results in problems with the management of such protected areas.”

Case Title

In Re: T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India & Ors. | Writ Petition (Civil) No. 202 of 1995

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