News: NGT Orders Action on Mining Firm’s Road Via Aravalli Land-04-08-2026
The National Green Tribunal has directed Haryana authorities to act against a private mining company for illegally carving a road through protected Aravalli forest land.
The tribunal was hearing a plea that M/s Maa Santoshi Khanij Udhyog, granted Environmental Clearance in 2020 to mine at village Musnota, Tehsil Narnaul, District Mahendergarh, had made an illegal temporary road to reach its mines. Heavy vehicles carrying minerals were using it and damaging the plantation area, the plea said.
A bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member Afroz Ahmad noted that a joint committee it had formed earlier reported that the road lay within the Aravalli plantation and that the proponent had not obtained mandatory forest clearance under the Forest Act.
In its order dated July 22, made available on Tuesday, the tribunal said the committee had rightly found that the "kacha rasta" passes through khasra numbers 258 and 270 of village Panchnota, which are Aravalli Plantation and forest land. The road did not exist earlier, it said.
The bench cited a 2004 Supreme Court verdict prohibiting mining on plantation land under the Aravalli Project.
It directed the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority in Haryana to decide on the violation of clearance conditions within three months. The Haryana State Pollution Control Board is to impose environmental compensation after a hearing, and the competent authority is to act under the Forest Act expeditiously.
