A new in the list of PILs seeking to address and act on the issues of wildlife conservation is the one filed by wildlife activist Biren Pandya. This time it is for the protection of Asiatic lions. With the primary concern being around their unnatural deaths, the PIL finds resonance with a similar one filed last year for elephants. But the question that one needs to ask is where are we headed with these individual PILs and suo moto cases, if all that is being done on the ground is the shooting of these animals to drive them away.
Two PILs — one filed by wildlife activist Biren Pandya and another suo moto PIL taken up by the court on its own after a report tabled in the Gujarat Assembly said that 182 lions died in Gir in the last two years, a large number of them due to unnatural causes — is now seeking to put an end to the unnatural deaths of lions in the forests of Gir, the only abode of Asiatic lions.
Spread over 1,400 sq km, the GNPS (Gir National Park and Sanctuary) and its peripheral areas cover parts of Junagadh, Amreli, Gir Somnath, Bhavnagar and Porbandar districts. The Asiatic lion population in GNPS at the end of 2015 census was put at 523.
In late 2018, the Gujarat Assembly was once again informed that close to 200 lions had died since 2017, 27 of them due to “unnatural causes”. To a query by Congress' Bhagabhai Barad, Forest Minister Ganpat Vasava, in a written reply, said 110 lions and 94 cubs died in 2017 and 2018. Of the 110 adult lions, 43 died in 2017 and 67 in 2018. 38 cubs died in 2017 and 56 in 2018, the reply said. Vasava also said that 331 leopards, including 75 cubs, died in Gujarat forests in the last two years.
The Gujarat government had attributed the unnatural deaths to road and rail accidents, wells without parapets, and electric fences around fields, in its response to the High Court, last year.
Tragically, last December, three young lions were mowed down by a goods train in Amreli, and several cases of illegal ‘lion shows’ staged for tourists were reported from the state. Efforts to radio-collar the lions to track them and keep them away from danger have yet to take off. Meanwhile, Gujarat, which has 523 lions (2015 census), has been resisting a move to shift some of them to Madhya Pradesh.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 2019 من Legal Notes.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 2019 من Legal Notes.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Time For Action
Since time immemorial, the environment has had a larger-than-life place in the Indian scheme of things. But the Nineties and the new century have really been a sad story of a virtually unending line of laws failing to combat the increasing levels of pollution brought forth by urbanisation, and the global pressure about greenhouse emissions resulting in the Paris accord that now brings in its wake greater pressure on countries to tighten laws. Amidst all this, India shines as a classic example of the irrational mindset of enacting more laws to produce less pollution. RACHANA RANA BHATTACHARYA, while examining the dizzying number of laws that engulf us and the incredulously lopsided judicial pronouncements made by different courts, poses a simple question: What is the way forward?
Who's Responsible For Fukushima?
Even as the Fukushima nuclear disaster continues to haunt a section of the Japanese people and the world, a Japanese Court’s decision to acquit the nuclear power company, TEPCO’s bosses after three years of trial, raises questions over the use of nuclear power for energy needs.
Tata, Bye-Bye?
What would one choose between their right to vote in local body elections and to receive world class civic amenities? The answer isn’t as simple as it looks. Jamshedpur — the land of the Tatas has been struggling with this question for the last 30 years and looks like they still haven’t found an answer. Maintained by the Tatas, there has been a steady incline in the number of voices demanding a government operated municipality to take over the town. In the midst of consecutive orders by various High Courts, the Supreme Court and clashing opinions, SHWETA MENON in her visit to the steel city found that the majority verdict by the janta remains in favour of the Tatas.
No Winners In The Opioid Case
Pain can make you rich and the opioid issue in the US is testimony to that. But other than the wealth it spawned, opioid has generated a huge number of legal cases in the US – and quite a few of them have been filed by the states. Will the Sacklers, one of the richest families in the US and the makers of the pain-relieving drug OxyContin, go scot free?
J&-K A Jumble Of Laws
The transition of Jammu and Kashmir from a state to a Union Territory hasn’t been an easy one.
Tourism Of A Different Kind
Is settlement tourism making the situation worse in the disputed West Bank region? That is a question that remains to be answered. Despite Airbnb changing course on its earlier decision to ban listings for Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the legal battle continues.
Another Toothless Commission!
There was a walkout by the opposition, protests were staged across the capital, activists were shoved into police vans, letters were written to the President urging him to not sign the amendment and yet the central government was finally able to hit a six in its second attempt this year to amend the RTI (Right to Information) Act!
Labour's “Decent Life” Dreams Continue
“Every moving The Code on Wages Bill, 2019 made it a point to inform the Members of the Rajya Sabha that the government had accepted 17 out of the 24 recommendations made by the Standing Committee which had scrutinised a similar bill introduced in the previous Lok Sabha.
Article 370 - The Albatross Around The Neck
Considered an ‘albatross around the neck’ by the present BJP government at the centre, the sudden and surprising abrogation of Article 370 has opened the doors to a flood of emotions. The abrogation will be debated and tested in the Supreme Court, but it seems that the move has already won in the peoples’ court.
UAPA Amendment: Need Of The Hour
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act, 2019, which has received the Presidential assent after being passed in both the Houses of Parliament in the just-concluded session, empowers the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to designate an individual as a “terrorist”.
