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The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently issued a notice in a plea filed as a representation letter, requesting issuance of a direction to conduct an independent Judicial inquiry into recent fire massacre at rich forests of Bandavgarh, Shahdol, Dindori and Amarkantak and other surrounding regions of state of MP.  

The Division Bench CJ Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Atul Sreedharan on Monday this week, issued a notice to the respondents and directed the Registry to provide a complete set of petition along with documents to Shri Anshuman Singh, learned amicus curiae, Shri Swapnil Ganguly, learned Deputy Advocate General and Shri J. K. Jain, Assistant Solicitor General for Respondent No.2/Union of India.

“Seeking urgent consideration of by this Hon’ble Court on Fundamental Right to Justice and Intergenerational Equity of living Entities under Article 32, 14, 19, 21 and 48A of the Constitution of India. This Hon’ble Court have on innumerable occasions, dealt with the true ambit of Right to life and today it includes Right to life with all its necessary facets, not just animal existence. All living beings, plants, trees, birds, vegetation depending on such eco system have Right to Life and it cannot be curtailed for the selfish human interest. None of these Living Beings are capable of defending their Right to Life and it is this Court which has always stood for the Right to life of every living being on earth.”- Excerpt from the plea.

The present plea preferred by Manan Agarwal, a student pursuing Law in Delhi through his Advocate(s) Samyak Jain and Dheeraj Tiwari practicing in MP. The petitioner contends in his plea that the ignorance, inactiveness, negligence and unreadiness of the Centre, State Government and Chief Conservator of Forests have rendered a great loss to forests, wildlife and birds in Madhya Pradesh and thus, caused ecological imbalance. It must also be noted that, despite a consistent warning by the meteorology department and information available via satellites to the concerned forest officials, no precautionary measures of any sort seem to have been taken in a time bound manner.

“Forests are socially and environmentally inter-linked with the people in the forest areas, and play an important role in the economic welfare and development of the region. The authorities concerned have no clue of how these fires took place and, on the ways, to stop them and questioned the training received by the concerned officials.” – Excerpt from the plea.

The plea further states that, the loss of income from lack of tourism due to the forest fires was another pressing concern. To declare the Intergenerational Equity Rights of Trees, to Recognise Trees a Living Entities entitled to Rights, Recognize Tree supportive Environment as corollary of Rights of Tree as Living Entities entitled to Rights is important.  

Therefore, in the light of the facts the petitioner urged that, a “Special Investigation Committee” must be formed on this entire matter to conduct a rigorous inquiry against the ignorance, inactiveness, negligence and readiness of the Centre, State Government and Chief Conservator of forests who have rendered a great loss to forests or any other measures which the Hon’ble court may deem suitable.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court recently issued a notice in a plea filed as a representation letter requesting issuance of a direction to conduct an independent Judicial inquiry into recent fire massacre at rich forests of Bandavgarh, Shahdol, Dindori and Amarkantak and other surrounding regions of state of MP.  

The Division Bench CJ Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Atul Sreedharan on Monday this week, issued a notice to the respondents and directed the Registry to provide a complete set of petition along with documents to Shri Anshuman Singh, learned amicus curiae, Shri Swapnil Ganguly, learned Deputy Advocate General and Shri J. K. Jain, Assistant Solicitor General for Respondent No.2/Union of India.

“Seeking urgent consideration of by this Hon’ble Court on Fundamental Right to Justice and Intergenerational Equity of living Entities under Article 32, 14, 19, 21 and 48A of the Constitution of India. This Hon’ble Court have on innumerable occasions, dealt with the true ambit of Right to life and today it includes Right to life with all its necessary facets, not just animal existence. All living beings, plants, trees, birds, vegetation depending on such eco system have Right to Life and it cannot be curtailed for the selfish human interest. None of these Living Beings are capable of defending their Right to Life and it is this Court which has always stood for the Right to life of every living being on earth.”- Excerpt from the plea.

The present plea preferred by Manan Agarwal, a student pursuing Law in Delhi through his Advocate(s) Samyak Jain and Dheeraj Tiwari practicing in MP. The petitioner contends in his plea that the ignorance, inactiveness, negligence and unreadiness of the Centre, State Government and Chief Conservator of Forests have rendered a great loss to forests, wildlife and birds in Madhya Pradesh and thus, caused ecological imbalance. It must also be noted that, despite a consistent warning by the meteorology department and information available via satellites to the concerned forest officials, no precautionary measures of any sort seem to have been taken in a time bound manner.

“Forests are socially and environmentally inter-linked with the people in the forest areas, and play an important role in the economic welfare and development of the region. The authorities concerned have no clue of how these fires took place and, on the ways, to stop them and questioned the training received by the concerned officials.” – Excerpt from the plea.

The plea further states that, the loss of income from lack of tourism due to the forest fires was another pressing concern. To declare the Intergenerational Equity Rights of Trees, to Recognise Trees a Living Entities entitled to Rights, Recognize Tree supportive Environment as corollary of Rights of Tree as Living Entities entitled to Rights is important.  

Therefore, in the light of the facts the petitioner urged that, a “Special Investigation Committee” must be formed on this entire matter to conduct a rigorous inquiry against the ignorance, inactiveness, negligence and readiness of the Centre, State Government and Chief Conservator of forests who have rendered a great loss to forests or any other measures which the Hon’ble court may deem suitable.