The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday ordered notice to the Centre and the State on a public interest litigation petition that sought a direction to conduct a study on the impact of turbines installed in wind farms on birds.
In the petition taken up for hearing by a Division Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and S. Ananthi, M. Soundarya of Madurai said that the study must be conducted to assess the impact of turbines on birds before setting up wind farms.
She pointed out that during migration, a large number of birds died as a result of collision with windmill turbines and high intensity power lines.
In 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, in a report titled ‘Eco-friendly measures to mitigate impacts of linear infrastructure on wildlife’, had issued several recommendations in this regard. These recommendations must be adhered to, she said.
Apart from the study of the impact of the turbines in wind farms on birds, the design and configuration of power lines must be modified. The vane tips of turbines must be coloured in black or orange as per the recommendation of experts, she said.
