National Green Tribunal Directs Union Government To Take A Call To Bring Slaughter Houses Under Environmental Clearance Regime, Sets 2 Months Deadline

The National Green Tribunal has directed the MoEF&CC to take a call within two months on the recommendations of the Expert Committee headed by Dr. S.R. Wate to include slaughterhouses and meat processing under Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006.

The bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel (Chairperson), Justice Sudhir Agarwal, Dr.A Senthil Vel further directed that, “…If no decision is taken by MoEF&CC within two months as directed above, the requirement for EC will apply to all large slaughter houses as per classification in the ‘Revised Comprehensive Industry Document on Slaughter Houses’ i.e. “Large: More than 200 large animal i.e. bovines per day, or more than 1000 small animal i.e. goat and sheep per day (any day in a week)” with effect from 01.08.2023.”

The Court was hearing an application that raised concerns over the inadequacy of the environmental regulatory framework to evaluate and remedy the adverse impact of slaughterhouse activities.

This is despite the recommendations of the expert Committee of the MoEF&CC on the subject,the applicant submitted.

The applicant stated that slaughterhouse and allied activities adversely affect the environment.

It highlighted to the Court that as per ‘Revised classification of industrial Sectors under Red, Orange, Green and White categories report published by CPCB in 2016’, slaughter houses are ‘red’ category industries due to their adverse impact on environment.

Thus, a well- managed slaughterhouse must have facilities for animal holding, lairage, abattoir, chilling room, process hall, freezing rooms, it added.

The applicant argued that cooling processes of meat products and equipment consume a lot of electricity and emit heat into the atmosphere, which contribute to global warming. Emissions from slaughterhouses are from the freezing plants and the CO2 is from the stunning equipment.

The applicant referred to the Expert Committee report for streamlining environmental clearance procedures constituted by MoEF&CC in 2017 headed by Dr. S.R. Wate.

Considering the adverse impact on the environment the Expert Committee report stated that, “…it is, therefore, proposed to bring all slaughterhouses along with large meat handling and processing units in the country under environmental clearance (EC) regime.”

The Tribunal noted the stand of MoEF&CC that requirement of EC already exists for construction projects more than 20,000 sq. mtrs. which includes slaughter houses.

“CPCB is empowered to take measures to control water and air pollution and has already issued order dated 23.10.2017 for measures to be adopted by the slaughter houses”, it added.

The Court observed that, “we are unable to accept this stand as the said process does not consider the impact of slaughterhouses.”

In light of the above the Tribunal opined that MoEF&CC needs to take a call on the recommendations of the Expert Committee headed by Dr. S.R. Wate in the light of its minutes dated 02.05.2017 within two months from today.

“Any stakeholders interested on the issue will be free to represent their viewpoint to the Secretary, MoEF&CC within two weeks from today”, it added.

Directing that if the decision is not taken within stipulated time the Tribunal said that thereafter, no ‘Large’ slaughter house can be established or expanded without EIA as per procedure applicable to B category project in terms of EIA Notification,2006.

In the next hearing the Tribunal will consider such directions in respect of medium slaughter houses, it stated.

Furthermore, the Tribunal dismissed the application for impleadment filed by All India Jamiatul Quresh Action Committee, which argued that poultry provides livelihood and employment to some people. The Tribunal also stated that "it does not obviate the need for environmental regulation."

The matter is posted to September 14 for further consideration.

Case Title:Gauri Maulekhi v.Union of India & Ors.

For Applicant: Raj Panjwani, Senior Advocate with Ms. Esha Dutta, Advocate

For Respondent(s): Vikrant Pachnanda, Advocate for CPCB

Sandeep Mahapatra & Soumitra Chatterjee, Advocates for

Applicant (All India Jamiatul Quresh Action Committee) in I.A No. 38/2023

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