Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Phrases: Railway Board, Elephant poaching, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Special Investigation Team (SIT), Narcotics Intelligence Bureau-Criminal Investigation Department (NIB-CID), Wild Life (Protection) Act, DNA profiling, Gadgil Committee, Kasturirangan Committee.

Why in News ?

• The Madras High Court is well known for its proactiveness in forest protection and conservation in the country.
• In line with this tradition, a Special Bench of the Court for Protection of Western Ghats Forests — is helping the wheels of the government machinery turn faster and more efficiently in sanctioning funds and implementing projects.
• Earlier, Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to frame a comprehensive policy for annihilating exotic and invasive species, such as eucalyptus and wattle, from the Western Ghats and instead restore the shola forests to protect the indigenous species from extinction.

What are recent judicial interventions of the Madras High Court that helps in Wildlife protection and Environmental conservation ?

• Train killing of Wildlife: A 'recurring and regular phenomenon':
  1. Taking a serious note of numerous elephant deaths due to train hits, the court recently directed the Railway Board to sanction funds for constructing underpasses for the safe passage of elephants across the tracks.
  2. The board has ensured that construction would be completed in four to five months, depending upon the monsoon.
  3. A court has also ordered erection of solar lights and solar fencing along the track. Now, it has been pressing the Forest Department to deploy elephant watchers and erect watchtowers.
  4. On learning from newspaper reports that Southern Railway had constructed a wall along the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) line, and it was obstructing the free movement of elephants, the court made sure that the wall was demolished at once and the debris was removed so that the animals could move about freely.
• Elephant poaching: An example of Administration Apathy and Anemic Investigation:
  1. Apart from accidental deaths, poaching of wild animals had gained the attention of the court.
  2. Dissatisfied with the slow pace of probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the inter-State forest offence cases that were transferred to it, the Bench has decided to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising officials of the CBI and the police departments in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• Legal hurdles: 'Jurisdiction dilemma':
  1. While dealing with a case related to the Narcotics Intelligence Bureau-Criminal Investigation Department (NIB-CID) in Ramanathapuram having seized lion teeth and deer horns along with narcotic substances during a routine vehicle check.
  2. The court identified a legal hurdle which allows only Forest Department officials, and not the police, to prosecute individuals under the Wild Life (Protection) Act.
  3. Court immediately asked the government to look into the issue and come up with a notification empowering the police, customs officials and others to prosecute offenders under the Act.
• DNA profiling: 'Technology can be a Panacea':
  1. Recently, the Court ordered the Forest Department that it should conduct DNA profiling after every elephant death, whether unnatural or otherwise, and preserve it for comparison and verification.
  2. The Court came to know that an advanced institute for wildlife conservation was conceived at Vandalur in Chennai in 2013. The institute, involved in multidisciplinary wildlife research, was formally inaugurated only in 2017 and began its operations in 2019.
  3. The judges were told that the DNA laboratory in the institute was still in the initial phase of setting up and handling DNA samples up to the level of sequencing and that the sequencing part was being outsourced to laboratories in other States since the institute did not have the requisite equipment.
  4. Court summoned the Environment and Forests Secretary to explain the delay in equipping the lab and appointing scientific officers. The Secretary appeared before the court and submitted that the DNA sequencing equipment had been procured and that scientific officers would be recruited soon.
• Cattle-grazing ban:
  1. After obtaining expert opinion on the harmful effects of letting cattle into the forests, the court banned the entry of cattle into tiger reserves, sanctuaries and national parks.
  2. They could be allowed in other forest areas, subject to the welfare of the environment and wildlife
  3. Livestock compete with wild herbivores in protected areas for food. “Cattle-lifting by tigers also becomes a problem in these areas, which in turn leads to poisoning of carcasses, leading to the death of tigers and other wildlife.”
  4. Tigers and cattle cannot co-exist in shared spaces. Efforts must be made to wean people off cattle-grazing, especially in protected areas, and other more sustainable livelihood models should be explored for local communities.
• Plastic-free wildlife regions:
  1. The most difficult task undertaken by the Madras High Court for quite some time now is to keep the hill stations free of one-time-use plastics.
  2. The Madras High Court had also been summoning the Collectors regularly through video call and taking stock of the steps taken by them to curb the entry of plastics into the hill stations and install water dispensers at prime locations for the tourists to fill their stainless-steel bottles.
• Unholy Nexus:
  1. The court has directed the State government to identify all forest officers who have been working in the same station for more than three years and transfer them out in order to prevent familiarization with local forest offenders.
  2. The unholy nexus is like a termite that leads to bad governance and poor environmental preservation.

Way Forward:

• Judiciary interventions towards the vacuum created by apathetic executive and lazy legislative are welcome steps, but it should not lead to judicial overreach.
• A collaborative-cooperative governance that implements experts’ recommendations like Gadgil Committee, Kasturirangan Committee is the need of the hour.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. 'Administrative apathy' and 'legislative inertia' are causing judicial activism in Wildlife protection and Environmental conservation. In this backdrop, discuss the recent judicial interventions in improving the forest based governance and effective policy implementation? ( 10 marks).