The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has quashed a notice issued by the Uttar Pradesh government for establishing new wood-based industries in the State, while observing that the precautionary principle should be followed.
‘Make inventory’
A Bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said, “The State should therefore make an inventory, species-wise and district-wise and also have species-wise consumption data of all the wood-based industries and their capacity to utilise them and not proceed with the present proposal till further exercise of making inventory and assessment of actual availability of timber or raw material is done.”
Quashing the March 2019 notification issued by the State government, the green panel noted that the affidavit furnished by the government mentioned that there were 6,686 wood-based industries with a capacity of 41.5 lakh cubic meter per year operating in the State.
“Therefore the total timber that will be actually be available for new industries as per the data given in the affidavit of the State is not going to be more than about 2 lakh cubic metre per year. Therefore, 18 lakh cubic metre timber that has been allotted for new wood-based industries by a State-level committee appears to be absurdly unrealistic,” the Bench observed.
