Prior Environmental Clearance Not Needed For Widening Work Of NH 4-A : Karnataka High Court

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty said "We hold that as in-principle approval (Stage-1 approval) granted under Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 to the third respondent is no longer valid, unless and until the period of the said in-principle approval is extended, the third respondent is not entitled to carry on any further work under the said project subject matter of this petition. Needless to add that subject to further directions which we are issuing, after the period of in-principle approval is extended, it will be open for the third respondent to proceed with further work."

The bench further directed the first respondent (Union of India) to consider whether any part of the project undertaken by the third respondent, falls within the Ecologically Sensitive Area and whether it will attract the prohibition provided as per directions issued on November 13, 2013, under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986.

It added the "The said issue shall be decided by the first respondent within a period of six weeks from the date on which a copy of this Judgment and Order is made available on the website of this Court. Needless to add that the issue will be considered by the concerned authority of the first respondent after giving an opportunity of being heard to the third respondent."

The court also suggested Union of India to undertake measures in accordance with subsection (4) of Section 36 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. It allowed the petitioners to make a representation to the appropriate authority calling upon the said authority to exercise the powers under sub-section (4) of Section 36 by specifically pointing out the measures which are required to be undertaken.

The petition had said "The Western Ghats stretch in Karnataka is home to one of the last remaining tropical wet evergreen forests. Western Ghats is a biodiversity hotspot and has been declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. The flora in Very dense forest of Eco Class I belong to the rare, endangered and threatened species that are difficult to be raised and planted. Also, CAMPA does not consider any diversity conservation of tree species that are lost due to feeling. It is done with timber species as a goal and is eventually executed as a monoculture of timber species elsewhere. Thus, the ecological services lost due to such large-scale felling of diverse very dense forest is never compensated for by the user agency nor by the Forest department".