Activists to approach Supreme Court seeking a review of 2021 Chardham judgement

New Delhi: Aiming to save the pristine Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone - one of the last stretches remaining in the controversial Chardham road project – a group of non-governmental organisations and prominent citizens is set to approach the Supreme Court seeking a review of its 2021 judgment that, according to them, has been proven counter-productive and hazardous to the Himalayan terrain.

The group is being helmed by two nonagenarian leaders from two sides of the political spectrum – BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi and Congress’s Dr Karan Singh – with support from Swadeshi Jagran Manch, key political leaders and top level retired bureaucrats and academicians.

The review will seek a halt on the construction of proposed roads through the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone that involves cutting down 9,000 trees including 6,000 precious deodar trees.

The tree felling is needed for extra widening of the road that the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways decided for the Chardham roads arguing defence needs and ignoring its own widening standard for hill roads. The environmentalists, on the other hand, claim such widening is unsuitable for mountain roads.

Over 900 km of roads being constructed under the Chardham project through Himalayan river valleys are meant to give all weather connectivity to Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri

Following a day-long meeting that was attended by Krishna Gopal, a RSS top leader, former Hindutva idealogue K N Govindacharya and former Congress MP Pradip Tamta among others, it has been decided to file an appeal in the top court to review its December 2021 judgment for conserving the Himalayas, particularly the Bhagirathi Eco Sensitive Zone.

“Does securing the country mean destabilising the Himalayas? Can’t there be any other way?” Joshi said with reference to the government’s plea of extra-widening of the roads for military needs. “Gadkari’ji, please spare the Himalayas,” added Singh, referring to the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari who masterminded the Chardham project.

The decision to approach the apex court with a review petition has been taken nearly two months after Joshi and Singh along with more than 80 prominent citizens wrote to the Chief Justice of India in September requesting him to review and recall the Dec 2021 verdict to prevent “irreparable damage to Himalayan ecology.”

The environmentalists have raised demands for a green bonus to the people of the eco-sensitive zones of the Himalayan region for the ecosystem services that these regions provide.

They also wanted demarcation of the eco-sensitive zones similar to the Bhagirathi eco-sensitive zone in the upper stretches of the Himalayas to formulate a buffer zone around the glaciers for their conservation and protection, and a special conservation programme to save the deodars.