Blitz Bureau
SUPREME Court judge Justice BV Nagarathna has said that funds supplied by the Centre to States for compensatory afforestation were not being utilised by State Governments, Bar and Bench reported.
Justice Nagarathna was speaking at the fourth GL Sanghi Memorial Lecture at the Maharashtra National Law University in Nagpur on the topic ‘Environmental Justice and Climate Change’. She highlighted that out of the total ₹57,325 crores of compensatory afforestation funds received and transferred to States, nearly ₹38,698 crores remained unutilised.
“This indicates that the government is receiving such huge amounts due to diversion of forests. It is possible that many of them may be a result of diversion of pristine evergreen forests which need utmost protection in the present context of climate change.
This huge amount of money collected makes me feel as if laws in place to conserve forests are reduced to mere procedures instead of promoting development! I hope this is not true,” Justice Nagarathna said.
She stressed that such afforestation laws must be enforced in line with constitutional duties. In her address, Justice Nagarathan underscored that it is among the fundamental duties of Indian citizens to be compassionate about all living creatures.
She added that the judiciary must be alive to the legal questions bought about by climate change and must live up to the challenge by creative interpretation of laws.
“The language in Article 48A and 51A(g) suggest that citizens have an extra fundamental duty to have compassion for living creatures. We have to understand this requirement through the constitutional schema enshrined in the Preamble to our Constitution. Climate change brings with it several new legal questions and the Court must be alive to such new challenges through creative interpretation of existing laws. Environmental justice should not be seen in isolation. Rather, it must be seen as part of a broader framework of justice,” she said. Law alone is not enough to protect the environment and deal with climate change, she reminded.
