Chennai: Madras high court on Friday quashed a 2014 government order alienating 7.98 acres of wetland located in the backwaters of Buckingham Canal to Indian Statistical Institute, Taramani.
The first bench of chief justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapoorwala and D Bharatha Chakravarthy directed the state to resume the land, reclassify it as backwaters and restore it to its natural use.“Repeatedly, courts have been coming hard on such alienations, obliterations of water bodies and wetlands and directing preservation and maintenance of its appropriate uses. In spite of which, these indiscriminate alienations continue unabated,” the court said.
Nature had very recently shown its fury in Dec 2023 highlighting the absurdity of such actions, the bench added.
The court passed the order on a PIL moved by I H Sekar in 2020 seeking to quash the 2014 GO alienating the wetland to the institute.
Representing the petitioner, advocate V B R Menon submitted that the land is a wetland, which the state is legally bound to protect and preserve from alienation, reclassification or conversion into alternate uses.
Buckingham Canal receives excess water from Pallikaranai marshland and discharges into the sea and acts as a protective shield for Chennai city. It is extremely crucial to avoid/mitigate effects of floods during excess rain and high tide in the sea, he said.
However, the state submitted that the land was reclassified as dry agricultural land as early as in 1949, and, at present, it is not a wetland or backwater.
The institute submitted that it has already spent 11 crore to construct a compound wall and level the land by filling it with debris and that quashing the alienation would cause financial loss to the institute.
Refusing to accept the contentions, the bench said: “The classification itself was absolutely erroneous. The land was never a cultivable land and, therefore, no way can it be termed as punjai land.”
It is the evil design of revenue authorities to exploit the pristine ecosystem and environment. Such an unconscionable and shockingly erroneous classification will not, however, change the nature of the land, the court said.
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The first bench of chief justice Sanjay Vijaykumar Gangapoorwala and D Bharatha Chakravarthy directed the state to resume the land, reclassify it as backwaters and restore it to its natural use.“Repeatedly, courts have been coming hard on such alienations, obliterations of water bodies and wetlands and directing preservation and maintenance of its appropriate uses. In spite of which, these indiscriminate alienations continue unabated,” the court said.
Nature had very recently shown its fury in Dec 2023 highlighting the absurdity of such actions, the bench added.
The court passed the order on a PIL moved by I H Sekar in 2020 seeking to quash the 2014 GO alienating the wetland to the institute.
Representing the petitioner, advocate V B R Menon submitted that the land is a wetland, which the state is legally bound to protect and preserve from alienation, reclassification or conversion into alternate uses.
Buckingham Canal receives excess water from Pallikaranai marshland and discharges into the sea and acts as a protective shield for Chennai city. It is extremely crucial to avoid/mitigate effects of floods during excess rain and high tide in the sea, he said.
However, the state submitted that the land was reclassified as dry agricultural land as early as in 1949, and, at present, it is not a wetland or backwater.
The institute submitted that it has already spent 11 crore to construct a compound wall and level the land by filling it with debris and that quashing the alienation would cause financial loss to the institute.
Refusing to accept the contentions, the bench said: “The classification itself was absolutely erroneous. The land was never a cultivable land and, therefore, no way can it be termed as punjai land.”
It is the evil design of revenue authorities to exploit the pristine ecosystem and environment. Such an unconscionable and shockingly erroneous classification will not, however, change the nature of the land, the court said.
We also published the following articles recently
Longwood Shola bags Ramsar wetland status
The Longwood Shola, known as dodda solai, was declared a Ramsar wetland, making it Tamil Nadu’s only hill wetland and the second in India. It also received the Queens Commonwealth Canopy accreditation. Spread across 116 hectares, the shola is an urban evergreen forest with rich biodiversity, including 170 rare bird species.
The Longwood Shola, known as dodda solai, was declared a Ramsar wetland, making it Tamil Nadu’s only hill wetland and the second in India. It also received the Queens Commonwealth Canopy accreditation. Spread across 116 hectares, the shola is an urban evergreen forest with rich biodiversity, including 170 rare bird species.