The High Court of Himachal Pradesh has issued notices to the Central and state governments and the National Highway Authority of India, in a petition seeking directions to the concerned authorities to take necessary measures as suggested by various experts, for the prevention of often occurring landslides along National Highways in Himachal Pradesh. These landslides cause large scale loss of lives and property.
A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua passed these orders on a petition filed by Namita Maniktala. The petition was taken up by the court as Public Interest Litigation. The petitioner has alleged that many areas of Himachal Pradesh, having fragile geologies, are prone to landslides and almost every year, the state witnesses massive landslides that cause loss of lives and property.
The residents of the state, as well as the tourists visiting Himachal, have a fundamental right to life and it is the duty of the state to take all those precautionary measures that can prevent the landslides and stop any further loss to lives and property of the citizens.
Maniktala has alleged that the experts have recommended some remedial measures to prevent landslides in various reports such as Landslide hazard risk management report, 2015, report of the study conducted by Dr A.K. Mahajan, Professor (Environmental Sciences), report of Geological Survey of India concerning the road cave at Kali Dhank area in Paonta Sahib-Shillai road and report of the Abhay Shukla Committee constituted by this court to study the impact of the establishment of Hydroelectric Projects of mountain ecosystems. But the state and NHAI authorities are not taking into account these expert suggestions while undertaking massive developmental projects in Himachal Pradesh, especially highways involving large scale excavation of hills.
The petitioner has requested to direct the state to inform the court about the implementation of the measures suggested by the experts in the aforesaid reports and to engage the services of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehradun to conduct a study on all such landslide vulnerable zones and suggest the measures to be taken for preventing such landslides. Maniktala has also requested that the state may be directed to install landslides predicting devices developed by IIT, Mandi and other similar devices in all the landslide-prone areas. She has further requested that the NHAI and the Himachal Pradesh Public Works Department may be directed to implement all the measures as suggested by the experts for the prevention of landslides along all national and state highways. The court posted the matter after four weeks and directed the respondents to file a reply by the next date. This monsoon caused major landslides in the state’s Kangra, Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti Sirmaur and Shimla districts, claiming several lives.
