‘No error’ in judgment: NGT rejects NHAI’s review plea against ₹45cr green compensation

Gurgaon: Saying that it found “no error” in its judgment, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) last Friday rejected NHAI’s review petition against Rs 45 crore it had imposed as environmental compensation for violating norms while constructing the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Gurgaon and Nuh.
“We find that there is a detailed discussion on this aspect and no error apparent on the face record in this respect has been pointed out during the course of the argument despite our repeated query, hence, the argument on quantum of compensation, having no substance, is rejected,” NGT said in its order.

The case goes back to Dec 2022, when a Gurgaon resident filed a plea alleging that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) had used up the catchment area of a pond in Kiranj village of Nuh to build the six-lane expressway.
NGT formed a committee, which found in its report that the expressway cut through a panchayat land in Gurgaon’s Hajipur, leaving a 3.3 acre-area completely inaccessible to locals in the absence of a service road. The committee also found that NHAI had encroached on two irrigation channels in Hajipur, and it did not acquire land in Kiranj before carrying out construction. Separately, the Authority had cut hundreds of trees on private farmlands in Kiranj without taking necessary permissions.
In its order on Feb 14 this year, the NGT bench of chairperson Prakash Shrivastava, justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Dr A Senthil Vel directed NHAI to pay environmental compensation of Rs 45 crore.
The highways authority subsequently filed a review petition in March and argued before the tribunal that it had paid Rs 58,940 and also deposited Rs 9.3 lakh for compensatory afforestation in lieu of chopping trees in Kiranj.
On this, the NGT bench said on Friday that Rs 45 crore was imposed as environmental compensation for the damage caused to the ecosystem, and not to farmers for cutting down the trees illegally. A joint committee of officials from Union environment ministry, Gurgaon and Nuh administrations, state and central pollution control boards, and Haryana’s Water Management Authority are supposed to come up with a restoration plan to fix the damage, the tribunal had said in its Feb ruling. On NHAI’s argument that it had not acquired land in khasra 91 and 92 of Kiranj, the bench said: “Whether the land was acquired or not, is not an issue considered by this Tribunal nor such a finding has been recorded by the Tribunal.