Nagpur: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to refrain from carrying out any construction work and maintain status quo projects at Nagpur’s Futala Lake.
The directions were passed by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice SC Sharma on an appeal filed by an NGO named Swacch Association Nagpur, which pointed out that the construction projects violated the Wetlands Rules and would seriously affect the ecology of the area.
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Thursday 09 Jan. 2025
“Why do you want to encroach on the waterbodies? Why can’t you have your viewing gallery further away?” Asked the CJI after the lawyer appearing for the Nagpur Municipal Corporation argued that the proposed construction was part of the redevelopment and beautification project.
The council also attempted to argue that the structures proposed were “temporary”.
“How can you say these are temporary structures? How is a viewer’s gallery a temporary structure? Is that in terms of the duration of its existence or how it’s being constructed? Viewers will come every day!” Commented Justice Pardiwala.
The Futala Lake/ Tank, also known as Telangkhedi Tank is a waterbody constructed in 1799 by the then Bhosle King. The dispute over the redevelopment and beautification of the Futala lakeside was raised in 2018 when the Municipal authorities issued an NOC for setting up a laser light show and fountains at the lake.
The petitioner NGO, represented by senior advocate Gopal Sankarnarayanan informed the bench that the proposed project has planned to dump 7,000 tonnes of concrete in the lake bed to build a floating platform, laser, cement and steel fountains, a viewing platform, restaurants and other things in the area.
The senior lawyer also informed the bench that the lake has been marked as a “Wetland” on the map of the Wetland Atlas of Maharashtra, which is a part of the National Wetland Atlas of India.
However, when the matter was argued before the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court in 2023, the Maharashtra government claimed that it was not a protected wetland, and on the basis of this claim, the High Court allowed the construction project.
The High Court order has now been challenged before the Supreme Court.
“Last year the Maharashtra government informed the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court that the Futala Lake doesn’t fall in the category of wetlands, but it is a man-made pond built during the Bhosle period for supplying water to Telangkhedi garden,” submitted Sankarnarayanan, adding that the lake “is a classified wetland as well as Grade I Heritage Precinct in Nagpur, Maharashtra.”
The bench has now sought an affidavit from the Nagpur Municipal Authority as well as the Maharashtra government on the details and parameters of the project. The affidavit carrying all details of the proposed project has to be submitted before the bench within 2 weeks.
The NGO in its appeal has submitted that the “High Court, with respect, committed an error apparent on the face of the record by ignoring the purpose for which the construction of a floating restaurant, stage, banquet & artificial banyan tree is being put up inside wetland area viz. commercial, entertainment & tourism purpose, and amounts to non-wetland uses resulting in encroachment of the wetland and is therefore prohibited under Rule 4 (2) (i) of the Wetlands (Conservation & Management) Rules, 2017.”
It has also argued that “no permissions were applied by the respondents to change use from ‘Agricultural’ to ‘Commercial’ and despite this gross abuse of the regulations and sanction plan, they were granted permission for the commercial construction in and around a wetland, causing great and immense environmental damage.”
The proposed project would have included a viewer’s gallery floating on the lake itself, a seven-story structure including a parking plaza, restaurants and other things.
The project would also include laser light and steel fountains which would be embedded in the lake bed itself.
The NGO in its plea has also pointed out that commercial projects of this type could not have been set up within 50 metres of a classified Wetland in order to protect the water body, ensure that the migratory birds that come to the lake are not affected, and to protect the surrounding drainage area which feeds the wetland.
