Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
The Bombay High Court on Friday took up the issue of preservation of wetlands in Maharashtra on its own, appointing a legal adviser to oversee a directive passed by the Supreme Court last month to protect over 2.31 lakh wetlands in India.
On December, 2024, the top court gave a three-month deadline to state wetland authorities across India to demarcate all wetlands having an area of more than 2.25 hectares. Following the top court’s order, these wetlands gained legal cover. The Supreme Court had also asked respctive High Courts to monitor the issue.
Nearly a month after the top court’s directive, a division bench of the Bombay High Court appointed advocate Janak Dwarkadas as Amicus Curiae, also known as a friend of the court, who has been tasked with the responsibility of filing a detailed note outlining the issues that need to be adjudicated.
The High Court also issued notices to the Centre, the Union Environment Ministry, the Maharashtra government, the state environment, forest and revenue ministries as well as the Maharashtra Wetlands Authority.
The top court, in its directive, had observed that prior to 2017, the figures given by the Indian Space Reserach Organisation (Isro) regarding the number of wetlands in India having an area of more than 2.25 hectares stood at 2,01,503. Citing the latest Isro data published in 2021, the top court showed that the figure has now shot up to 2,31,195.
“Now these figures have to be checked on the ground. The Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, and the guidelines issued thereunder, prescribe that the next step after identification of such wetlands is what is called ground truthing, which is a term given to the actual inspection of these wetlands by a team constituted by the state for that purpose,” the Supreme Court observed.
Pulling up all the state governments, the top court further observed that the crucial step of identifying wetlands has been neglected by “almost all the states,” barring Punjab.
“As regards to demarcation of these wetlands, all states have done almost nothing up till now,” the top court bench had further said.
The top court said that the ground truthing and the demarcation of wetlands are the need of the hour. Spelling the urgency, the bench said that all the state wetland authorities have to work on war footing along with the concerned nodal departments.
With this, the bench said that the concerned High Courts have to monitor the protection of internationally important wetlands.
The Bombay High Court is slated to hear the suo motu petition on February 25.
