High Court makes Roorkee institute a party to Save Sukhna case
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, March 18
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today impleaded the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, as a respondent in the Save Sukhna case. The institute had, among other things, stated that Sukhna Lake was not dying after all.
The direction came as the special Division Bench of Justice Jaswant Singh and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu extended the stay on High Court’s previous orders directing the demolition of constructions in the catchment area and the imposition of unprecedented costs of Rs200 crore on Punjab and Haryana.
During the hearing, Punjab Advocate-General Atul Nanda also presented a letter stating that the Survey of India’s 2004 map was not topographic. Responding to the submission, counsel appearing for residents submitted that action should not be taken on its basis under the circumstances.
The directions came after the Bench heard Nanda for the State of Punjab; counsel Rajeev Anand for Kansal Enclave Residents’ Welfare Association and UT senior standing counsel Pankaj Jain.
Digging deep into the Save Sukhna issue, the Roorkee-based institute had earlier come out with a slew of suggestions
for prolonging the lake’s life. The institute had asserted that the lake could not be said to be “limnologically” dying.
Limnologically, a lake dies only when it gets completely filled with sediments and turns into a marshy or a land area. “The people of Chandigarh and those who are attached with Sukhna Lake should be enlightened to refrain from overreacting or scaring… People should be informed that there is nothing to panic about, if the lake occasionally dries in a year or so, that too for a month or so, due to periodic occurrences of deficit rainfall years…,” the report had advised.
Among other things, it suggested the checking of evaporation to preserve water in the lake.
The report also recommended an increase in the overall capacity of lake and lowering the capacity of check dams.
“Certain evaporation retarding chemicals are available which are known to reduce evaporation. However, to avoid any possible negative impacts of such chemicals on the flora and fauna of the lake, they are not recommended for Sukhna. Instead, it is suggested that a physical method such as reduction in the exposed water spread area be adopted for the lake because evaporation is predominantly a surface phenomenon,” the report had added.
