Kullu: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Himachal Pradesh public works department and its contractor, M/s KK Mahajan Construction Private Ltd, to pay Rs 47 lakh as environmental damage compensation within two months to a Kullu resident for damaging his trout fish farm near Manali.In an order pronounced on Jan 28, NGT chairperson justice Prakash Shrivastava observed that “thousands of fish in a farm owned by the applicant died due to the water pollution caused by Mahajan Construction during the course of the construction of a bridge”. It also ruled that the HPPWD can recover the penalty amount from its contractor.Kushal Gupta, a resident of Haripur village near Manali in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, approached the NGT in 2024, claiming compensation after his trout farm suffered losses due to the construction of a new bridge over the Haripur Nallah by the PWD in 2018.In his letter petition, Gupta said his trout farm was located about 50 metres downstream of Haripur Nallah and that muck and debris dumped into the nallah during bridge construction flowed into his farm, killing thousands of trout fish and fish eggs due to water quality degradation and damage to their physical habitat. Therrefore, he sought compensation of Rs 47 lakh.Even before the construction began, Gupta had served a legal notice on the Kullu deputy commissioner in 2018, apprehending losses due to the proposed bridge, and had also lodged a police complaint against the contractor. However, the PWD, in a reply to the tribunal last year, declined to pay the compensation on the ground that “the period of limitation in the present case expired.”“The bridge construction began in Dec 2018 and was completed in March 2019. In the present case, the period of limitation expired on May 10, 2023, while the application for compensation was filed 11 months later, in April 2024. The application, therefore, deserves to be rejected, as the NGT Act stipulates that no claim for compensation can be entertained unless it is filed within five years of the cause of action,” the department stated in its report.However, the Tribunal rejected the argument, noting that the applicant had also approached the Himachal Pradesh high court in 2020 and that the limitation period was further affected by the Covid-19 period between March 15, 2020 and Feb 28, 2022. “If the time period when the applicant approached the HC and the Covid duration is excluded, then the application was filed within five years from the date when the cause of action arose,” the NGT order states.The PWD also claimed in its report that no excavated debris or muck was ever dumped into the Haripur rivulet that could have caused damage to the fish farm.However, justice Prakash Shrivastava observed in his order that “a committee of the local gram panchayat, during its inspection, found a large number of fish and eggs dead in the farm, and a local revenue officer also, in his report, blamed muck-dumping for the death of the fish.”While disposing of the application, justice Shrivastava further observed in his order that “the deputy director of fisheries, Patlikuhal, in Kullu district, also, in his report in 2019, stated that due to the muddy water caused by muck-dumping, the gills of the fish choked and they died after failing to absorb sufficient oxygen.” MSID:: 127767332 413 |
