The High Court of Himachal Pradesh, while hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) concerning road construction in ecologically fragile areas, has reiterated that no construction or tarring will take place on forest roads until further orders.
The court also noted that work on these roads remained incomplete. The court also took note of submissions regarding the large-scale felling of green trees for road construction. The direction followed submissions by amicus curiae Deven Khanna, who placed before the court a chart indicating that 55 roads had been constructed in violation of the Himachal Pradesh Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, within the Seraj assembly constituency under the Nachan forest division. The documents also contained a separate list of roads approved under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, in Seraj after August 19, 2024. Regarding the 16 helipads in Seraj, Khanna submitted that such facilities in forest areas could disturb wildlife and warranted an assessment of their environmental impact. The matter has been listed for its next hearing on December 2.
Proposals for forest clearance from the user agency were yet to be received in a majority of these cases, although the roads were already in place, according to the submissions recorded in the order. The Bagsaid-Rahidhar-Kathyali-Dharwar-Dhansal road, measuring 10.165 km, was shown as “in progress, approved”.
