Overview

• A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued an interim order in a suo motu case, requiring an affidavit from the Principal Secretary of the Forest Department.
• The questionnaire spans zoning, forest and tree cover, compensatory afforestation, disaster plans, highways, hydropower, mining, heavy machinery, tourism and multi-storey construction.
• The state must disclose whether a climate change policy exists and submit any studies on current and projected climate impacts on Himachal’s ecosystem.
• Details are sought on two decades of disaster-management allocations and utilisation, the number of rivers, hydropower projects with commencement dates, cumulative impact assessments and the status of new project proposals.
• The court also asked for measures to regulate tourist footfall during peak monsoon, prosecutions for illegal construction under the Town and Country Planning Act and cases related to illegal tree felling.