Uttarakhand Directed by NGT to Establish Pilgrim Equine Carrying Capacity Within 30 Days

NGT directs Uttarakhand to determine the number of horses allowed on pilgrim routes of Kedarnath, Hemkund Sahib, Yamunotri, and Gomukh within a month. This is to prevent equine waste damage. The tribunal also ordered a study to establish the carrying capacity within a year. Despite previous assurances, the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board's report on this has not been submitted. Equines used on the routes commonly known as horses carry pilgrims and supplies.

The National Green Tribunal on Thursday directed the Uttarakhand authorities to fix within a month an ad hoc carrying capacity of pilgrim equines across the pilgrimage tracks of Kedarnath, Hemkund Sahib, Yamunotri and Gomukh.

Equines resemble or relate to the horse family and are widely used to ferry pilgrims and carry supplies.

The tribunal -- hearing a petition claiming large-scale unregulated violation of environment norms, including unregulated equine dung, waste or carcasses along the four pilgrim tracks -- also asked the authorities concerned to complete the study for fixing the carrying capacity of pilgrim equines within a year.

A bench of National Green Tribunal Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava said the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board (UKPCB) did not file its report about the carrying capacity of pilgrim equines, despite the board counsel assuring the tribunal in January about ''positively filing'' it within two months.

The bench, also comprising Judicial Members Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and Expert Member Afroz Ahmad, noted the submissions of the petitioner's counsel that the carrying capacity is required to be fixed at the earliest to prevent the pilgrim centres from environment damage.

It noted the reply of the board counsel that the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, had consented to conduct a ''carrying capacity study of pilgrims equines'' and said it would require one and a half years (12 months of data collection and six months of report writing).

''We are of the view that a one-and-a-half-year period for conducting the carrying capacity study, especially six months for writing a report is unreasonably long. Hence, every effort should be made to complete the study and prepare the report within one year,'' the tribunal said.

It said the authorities concerned had to fix the ''ad hoc carrying capacity'' based on the ''already available material'' within a month and file an action taken report. The matter has been posted to July 31 for further proceedings.

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