Rampant urbanisation in and around Chennai has led to a rapid decline in wetland area, Madras High Court’s Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said here on Sunday.
Delivering the valedictory address of the Regional Conference on Environment, 2016, organised by the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal, Justice Kaul said, “If you mess around with nature, nature will mess around with you mercilessly”.
“The methodology adopted is that you let the land remain fallow and then say that it is not capable for cultivation...there is no data of it, no control mechanism for it, how do you reverse the trend?” he asked.
The Chief Justice pointed out that a three-judge bench had ensured that in the future no wetland area could be reclassified as any other type of land.
Justice Swatanter Kumar, Chairperson, NGT, said it had become a trend to flout the law first and then pay a fine. “With regard to fait accompli matters which are in the High Court, Supreme Court or the NGT….here, everybody likes to flout the law first and then become the good man in the eye of the law. These fait accompli cases in the country are the biggest challenge for the judicial system.”
