The Supreme Court on Monday, 11 May, sharply criticised what it described as a growing tendency to use environmental litigation to stall infrastructure projects, while hearing a plea linked to the expansion and modernisation of Gujarat’s Pipavav port — a long-contentious coastal project that has faced years of environmental objections and regulatory scrutiny.

Hearing a challenge to a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order upholding environmental and Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearances for the port expansion, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi questioned whether the country could progress if every major project was met with litigation.

“Show us even a single project in this country where these so-called environmental activists have said that we welcome this project,” the bench remarked. “In this country, the kind of petitions being filed are only to stall development. That is the problem. How the country is going to progress?”

At the same time, the bench clarified that courts remained conscious of environmental concerns and had consistently intervened where ecological damage was evident. It said activists and environmental groups should instead focus on offering constructive suggestions that balanced development with environmental protection.

“The attempt should never be to stall developmental projects,” the bench said.

The case concerns the expansion and modernisation of Gujarat Pipavav Port Ltd (GPPL), India’s first private port developed under the public-private partnership model at Pipavav in Amreli district of Gujarat. The project involves expanded cargo handling facilities, new berths, dredging activity and upgraded container and liquid cargo infrastructure aimed at significantly increasing the port’s handling capacity.

The project has had a long and controversial environmental history. Environmental and CRZ clearance for the expansion was first granted in 2012 under the UPA government, but portions of the project were later challenged before the NGT over concerns relating to mangroves, grazing land, coastal ecology, fishing livelihoods and potential salinity impacts.

In 2013, the NGT had even asked the environment ministry to reconsider the clearance, observing that the environmental impact assessment process required closer scrutiny. Activists and local groups had alleged that earlier expansions of the port had already affected mangroves and coastal ecology in the region.

Yet the project continued to receive extensions and fresh approvals over the years. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change extended the validity of environmental and CRZ clearances in 2019 after large parts of the approved work remained incomplete.

That trajectory, critics note, mirrors a broader policy shift under the Narendra Modi government, which has repeatedly stressed “ease of doing business” and accelerated infrastructure approvals while simultaneously diluting or relaxing environmental compliance norms in several sectors.

Over the past decade, amendments to environmental regulations — including post-facto clearances, extended validity periods for approvals and streamlined appraisal procedures — have frequently been justified in the name of speeding up development projects, such as the currently ongoing and immensely controversial Great Nicobar project.

Against that backdrop, the Supreme Court’s remarks on Monday appeared strikingly aligned with the Centre’s development-first policy approach, which has often viewed prolonged environmental litigation as an obstacle to economic growth.

The bench, however, stopped short of dismissing environmental concerns altogether. It noted that apprehensions about ecological damage could initially be genuine whenever large projects were proposed.

Dealing with the present plea, the court observed that the NGT had passed a “very detailed order” in the matter. It granted liberty to the petitioner to approach the NGT through a review application specifically on the question of whether the environmental impact assessment report had adequately considered the issues raised by the petitioner. The apex court also directed the NGT to examine that aspect.

The judges reiterated that while development was necessary, environmental safeguards could not be ignored. At the same time, they stressed that litigation should not become a means to indefinitely halt projects that governments consider vital for economic growth and infrastructure expansion.

With PTI inputs

A month-old chick of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB), born in the wild in Gujarat for the first time in nearly a decade through an experimental conservation programme, has gone missing in Kutch, raising fears that it may have been killed by predators.

The chick, hatched on 26 March in the Naliya grasslands of Kutch through the “jumpstart technique”, has not been located for the past three to four days despite extensive searches by teams from the Gujarat forest department and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII).

Conservation breakthrough ends in uncertainty

The hatching had earlier been hailed as a major conservation milestone because Gujarat had not recorded the birth of a wild GIB chick in the region for almost ten years.

The chick was born using the “jumpstart approach”, a captive-to-wild conservation method aimed at increasing the species’ population.

Under the technique, a fertile egg from a captive breeding centre is transported and placed into the nest of a wild female GIB sitting on an infertile egg, allowing the chick to hatch and be raised in natural conditions.

Forest officials fear predation

In-charge Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Jaipal Singh said there were concerns that the chick may have been hunted by predators after moving beyond the monitoring zone.

“The chick survived until it reached the stage of taking its first flight. However, it moved beyond the scope of our monitoring subsequently,” Singh said.

The Kutch forest department said that despite close surveillance by staff, wildlife watchers and WII experts, the bird could not be traced over the last few days.

“Since the area is a natural habitat for various wildlife, it is possible that it may have been hunted by them,” the department said.

Species faces extremely high mortality

Officials noted that the Great Indian Bustard faces severe survival challenges during its earliest stages of life.

According to the forest department, only around 40 per cent of laid eggs successfully hatch, and nearly 60 per cent of chicks do not survive beyond their first two months.

Because the bird nests on the ground, chicks remain highly vulnerable to predators such as jackals, foxes, feral cats, mongooses, birds of prey and monitor lizards.

Authorities said the jumpstart technique helps reduce egg predation but cannot fully eliminate the risks faced by newly hatched chicks in the wild.

Conservation efforts to continue

Despite the setback, officials said the breeding and restoration programme would continue.

Singh said the department would keep procuring fertile eggs from Rajasthan while also continuing efforts to release additional chicks into the Kutch landscape.

Two female Great Indian Bustards have also been tagged to help researchers monitor nests and collect breeding data for future conservation efforts.

The forest department said habitat restoration work was also underway, including fencing reinforcement, invasive vegetation removal, predator management and water conservation measures.

One of India’s rarest birds

The Great Indian Bustard is among the world’s rarest birds and is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Once found across large parts of India, its population has collapsed due to habitat loss, hunting, power line collisions and shrinking grasslands.

Today, the remaining population survives mainly in parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat.