Shocked at casual response, NGT puts U’khand, HP on notice : The Tribune India

Join Whatsapp Channel

Shocked at casual response, NGT puts U’khand, HP on notice

NEW DELHI:Worried over what is believed to be largely a manmade crisis due to poor forest management practices, the National Green Tribunal today expressed shock at the way everybody concerned was taking the raging forest fires in Uttarakhand and HP “so casually”.

Shocked at casual response, NGT puts U’khand, HP on notice

A wild fire rages in a jungle near Shimla on Monday. Photo: Amit Kanwar



Vibha Sharma 

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 3

Worried over what is believed to be largely a manmade crisis due to poor forest management practices, the National Green Tribunal today expressed shock at the way everybody concerned was taking the raging forest fires in Uttarakhand and HP “so casually”.

Issuing show-cause notices to both the states, a Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the respective governments to inform about their “preparedness to prevent such incidents” and the preventive steps taken by them prior to the fire incident and management plans to ascertain the “cause of fire”. The green court also took the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to task. “What have you (MoEF) done regarding the fire? It shocks us. Everybody is taking it so casually,” the Bench said.

Ministry officials, meanwhile, said the Centre had taken the forest fires “very seriously” and was working on a strategy for the overall management of such fires in future.

LS clears forest fund Bill 

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday cleared the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Bill, 2015, which aims to unlock Rs 42,000 crore for increasing forest cover and setting up national and state-level authorities to check compulsory afforestation. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said the fund would also help build contingency capacities in forests

Top News

'When government changes...': Rahul Gandhi after Rs 1,800 crore fresh I-T notice to Congress

'When government changes...': Rahul Gandhi after Rs 1,800 crore fresh I-T notice to Congress

The Congress leader accuses the BJP of indulging in ‘tax ter...

Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in UP's Banda orders judicial inquiry into death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari

UP court orders judicial probe into gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s death, seeks report in a month

Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari on Tuesday alleged that his brother...

‘Heart attack or poisoning’: The life and times of Mukhtar Ansari—crime and politics

‘Heart attack or poisoning’: The life and times of Mukhtar Ansari—crime and politics

Eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh are among the poorest regions...

CBI files chargesheet against 20 institutes, 105 individuals in Himachal Pradesh multi-crore scholarship scam

CBI files chargesheet against 20 institutes, 105 individuals in Himachal Pradesh multi-crore scholarship scam

22 educational institutions were on CBI radar in the scholar...


Cities

View All