National Green Tribunal issues notices over environmental violations in Puri airport construction

Cuttack:National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday issued notices to both the central and state govts seeking responses within four weeks following a petition filed by residents alleging large-scale ecological violations in construction of the Shree Jagannath International Airport in Puri.A group of 10 residents, led by Surendra Tapasu, filed the plea before NGT’s east zone bench in Kolkata, seeking an interim stay on ongoing constructions, including the approach road, boundary wall and material stockyard at the project site in Sipasarubali mouza.The petition claimed the project commenced without mandatory environmental clearance (EC), forest clearance (FC) or Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) approval.

Represented by advocates Sankar Prasad Pani and Ashutosh Padhy, the petitioners argued that felling of trees in an ecologically sensitive and cyclone-prone coastal zone violates sustainable development principles.The bench, comprising Arun Kumar Tyagi (judicial member) and Dr Afroz Ahmad (expert member), issued notices to the Union ministries of environment, forests and climate change, and civil aviation, and senior officials of the state govt, including the principal secretary (forest and environment), additional chief secretary (commerce and transport), Puri collector and divisional forest officer.

The matter will be heard next on Oct 10.According to the petition, over 13,500 trees — many of them part of long-established coastal shelter belt plantations like casuarina and cashew — were cut to make way for the project. A site inspection report by the Bhubaneswar regional office of the forest and environment ministry noted that these bio-shields play a crucial role in protecting coastal villages from frequent cyclones.The airport site, spread over 471.401 hectares, includes 27.887 hectares of classified forest land (DLC forest), and lies within CRZ-III, where non-permitted development is prohibited. The area is also close to the Balukhand-Konark Wildlife Sanctuary — a habitat for blackbucks — and near nesting sites of the Olive Ridley turtles. The petition contends that the airport’s operations may also impact the Central Asian Flyway near Chilika lake, used by migratory birds.The petition also questions the recent change in land-use classification — from ‘green zone’ to ‘tourist infrastructure zone’ — in the Puri-Konark master plan to facilitate the airport project.