NEW DELHI, 6 Sep: The Centre has urged the Supreme Court to direct 13 Himalayan states of the country to assess their ‘carrying capacity’ and proposed setting up of an expert panel to evaluate the action plans submitted by each of them.
Carrying capacity is the maximum population size that an ecosystem can sustain without getting degraded.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change filed the affidavit in a PIL by Ashok Kumar Raghav after the top court had on August 21 asked the Centre and the petitioner to discuss and suggest a way forward to enable the court to pass directions on the carrying capacity of Himalayan states and towns.
Raghav’s plea sought an assessment of the carrying capacity and master plans for the Indian Himalayan Region spanning 13 states and union territories.
The ministry told the apex court that it has in the past circulated guidelines for assessing carrying capacity of hill stations including cities and eco-sensitive zones to all 13 Himalayan states by its letter of January 30, 2020 and has also sent reminder letter on May 19, 2023 to request the states that if such study has not been undertaken then they may submit the action plan, for the purpose.
“In the light of the above-stated steps taken by the respondent ministry, where comprehensive exercise has been undertaken by experts in the field, it will be imperative that factual aspects of each hill-station are specifically identified and collected with the help of the local authorities cutting across multiple disciplines,” the ministry said.
The Centre’s affidavit holds importance in view of wide-scale damage caused by monsoon last month in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
The ministry said that for achieving the final goal of assessing accurate carrying capacity of each hill station, some steps ought to be taken.
“Direct all 13 Himalayan states to submit an action taken report and an action plan, in a time-bound manner, for taking steps to carry out the carrying capacity assessment as per guidelines prepared by GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment,” the Centre said.
It also sought direction to all these states and Union territories for constitution of a committee, in a time-bound manner, headed by the chief secretary of the respective state, for carrying out a multi-disciplinary study as per guidelines prepared by GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment.
