NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre’s response to a PIL alleging inaction of Union and state governments to remove encroachments on riverbeds that constrict its flow and cause their unnatural drying up at a time of worrying global warming trends resulting in disasters – floods during rains and water crisis in summers.
A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notices to the ministries of environment, water resources, earth sciences, central water commission and central pollution control board after hearing brief arguments from advocate Akash Vashishtha on behalf of petitioner Ashok Kumar Raghav, a former UP-cadre IPS officer turned environmentalist.SC asked the respondents to file their responses within three weeks.
The petitioner said that though the first draft River Regulation Zone (RRZ) was issued in 2011, issuance of River Conservation Zone and RRZ notifications are pending for nearly a decade.
“The incidence of illegal constructions of buildings and other structures, encroachments and impediments on the riverbeds and floodplains of rivers is alarmingly on rise and poses one of the biggest threats to the rivers, due to the absence of any statutory enactments or regulations to regulate and prohibit this ecologically, physically and morphologically hazardous practice,” the petitioner said.
Several rivers across the country are critically impacted and are on the brink of disappearance due to unregulated and unchecked illegal constructions and encroachments on and along the riverbeds, floodplains and catchment areas, he said, adding that these constructions majorly contribute to polluting the rivers and irreversibly damaging the riverine ecology posing grave danger to water security of the nation.
Raghav said, “Because of the illegal/unauthorized constructions, encroachments and impediments on the riverbed, floodplains and catchments, catastrophic floods, resulting in grave loss of lives and properties have occurred in Mumbai (2005), Kedarnath (2013), Srinagar Jhelum floods (2015), Chennai (2015), Kerala (2018), Rishiganga River flash floods in Uttarakhand (2021), Alaknanda floods in Uttarakhand (2023) and the Beas River flash floods in Himachal Pradesh (2023).”
He said, “Google satellite imageries reveal heavy reclamation of the riverbeds, floodplains and catchments of the rivers, especially Ganga River in Haridwar, Rishikesh, Devprayag, Uttarakhand, Adyar River in Chennai, Noyyal River in Coimbatore, Musi River in Hyderabad, Gomti River in Lucknow, Mithi River in Mumbai, Mula-Mutha River in Pune and Hooghly River in Kolkata, to name a few, over last 12 years.”
