The National Green Tribunal (NGT) dismissed a petition filed seeking direction to the Comptroller Audit General of India to file a report within 6 months on the amount of loss caused to elephant habitats and their pathways across the nation by an audit using satellite imaging and drones.
The application filed by one S. Muralidharan further seeks direction to the Union of India to recover and re-establish elephant habitats and migratory corridors for elephants to move around, as they did for 1000s of years, based on the audit report.
During the course of argument, Counsel for the applicant could not point out any material justifying such a relief as also the jurisdiction of the NGT in this regard.
On perusal of the petition, the Principal Bench of Justice Prakash Shrivastava , Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Dr. A. Senthil Vel found the applicant has pleaded about the basic nature and habits of the elephants and threat of their survival on account of human elephant conflict. A plea has also been raised that on account of Government decision to reopen the brick kilns illegally, there is a spur in human and elephant deaths.
“Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 is not a Scheduled Enactment under the NGT Act, 2010. Applicant, present in person, has failed to point out any substantial issue relating to compliance of provisions of the Scheduled Enactments which confers jurisdiction upon the Tribunal under Section 14 and 15 of the NGT Act, 2010,” the NGT observed.