The Delhi High Court has directed the central government and the National Board for Wildlife to respond to a petition alleging the systemic and unauthorized diversion of the country’s protected ecological reserves for industrial and infrastructure projects.
A division bench of Chief Justice D. K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued the formal notices on Wednesday during a hearing on a public interest litigation. The court has scheduled the next hearing for September, by which time the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the National Board for Wildlife must file their detailed replies.
The legal challenge was brought forward by a group of 10 petitioners, including retired officers from the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Forest Service. Senior advocate Prashanto C. Sen and lawyer Shibani Ghosh represented the group in court.
Alleged Lack Of Scrutiny
According to the petition, the National Board for Wildlife and its standing committee are failing to meet their constitutional and statutory obligations under the Wildlife (Protection) Act. The petition highlights that the standing committee approved over 97 percent of all proposals to denotify, divert, or reduce protected lands considered between 2014 and 2026.
The petitioners characterized the standing committee as a clearing house rather than a protective body, noting that it frequently reviews and approves more than 100 development proposals within a single day. The plea alleges that these decisions are made mechanically with minimal ecological or scientific evaluation, limited impact studies, and a complete lack of public transparency. Furthermore, the petition points out that while the full board is legally mandated to meet annually, it went 13 years without a meeting before finally convening in 2025.
Impact On Critical Ecological Corridors
To demonstrate the scale of the clearances, the petition cited decisions made on June 26, 2025, when the committee approved the diversion of approximately 1,730 hectares of land. These clearances authorized highways, roads, mobile towers, helipads, power transmission lines, drinking water infrastructure, and various mining projects within Eco-Sensitive Zones and critical wildlife habitats.
Among these approvals were open-cast coal mining and black granite mining projects in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur district. This specific area serves as an essential wildlife corridor connecting the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve, the Kanhargoan Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary.
Constitutional Arguments
The legal petition emphasizes that India’s network of 1,134 protected areas—which includes national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and tiger reserves—makes up between 5.28 and 5.43 percent of the country’s total land area. These zones are vital to national water, food, and ecological security.
The petitioners argued that by enabling the poor performance of the board and its committee, the Ministry of Environment has allowed the loss of lakhs of 12 hectares of public trust land. The plea asserts that allowing the destruction of these crucial habitats directly violates Article 21 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees citizens the fundamental right to live in a healthy environment and to remain free from the adverse consequences of climate change.
