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Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves informed Supreme Court on Tuesday that the Indian Army was only following the political establishment's whims and that it was in fact happy with the existing roads that connect the pilgrimage to the Char Dham. The Senior counsel was referring to the project which will upgrade and develop the road which connects all four 'Dhams' i.e Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath and seeks to make the Hindu pilgrimage accessible vide a 900-km road.

Gonsalves told a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant and Vikram Nath that the project was taking place because in 2016, the Char Dham Pariyojana was declared, which included construction of highways on the mountains. "This will enable SUVs to race up and down the mountain. This comes at a terrible cost and it needs to be weighed," he said.

He further insisted that the Army was in fact happy with the existing roads,

"Can the Himalayas allow human beings to do things that they want to do. The consequences are terrible. One of us met Bipin Rawat (Chief of Defence Staff), he said “We the army are happy with the roads as they are.”

The Court was hearing a plea challenging the Stage-I Forest Clearance and wildlife clearance granted for the improvement and expansion of the road leading to Char Dham which has allegedly led to massive deforestation. The Union has filed an application in the present plea for modification of the 8th September 2020 (which lay down certain specifications for the width of the road widening) order of the Supreme Court, on the grounds that it needs build broader roads for army to carry supplies to Chinese border.

Gonsalves also informed Supreme Court that the High Powered Committee (HPC) which was set up in August 2019 to consider the ecological impact of the project had put forth a report which affirmed deforestation and pollution on account of traffic. 

"The 2020 amendment (which proposed the expansion of the width of the road) is the same as the 2012 circular which the court did not accept. But the HPC says that effect of the roads will be dramatic. Himalayas is a young mountain range," he said

Char Dham national highway connectivity programme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2016, comprises projects of improvement of over 889 km length of national highways leading to Yamunotri Dham, Gangotri Dham, Kedarnath Dham, Badrinath Dham and part of the route leading to Kailash Mansarovar yatra.

According to the Hindu, the project is under the Supreme Court’s scanner after an NGO, Citizens for Green Doon, raised environmental concerns over the cutting of trees and harm to the fragile Himalayan ecology by the widening of the existing mountain roads. The high-powered committee was formed to be the eyes and ears of the Supreme Court on the project. However, it had not been unanimous in its views.

Case Title: Citizens for Green Doon Vs Union of India