SC considers lifting ban on transmission lines through GIB habitats

With the exception of several areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat, 90% of the bird’s habitat has vanished.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday mulled lifting the total ban against the installation of overhead transmission lines across 80,688 square kilometres in Gujarat and Rajasthan, asking the Union government to define priority habitat areas for the conservation of the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB).

The bird is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its Red List of threatened species. (Shutterstock)

Inclined to review its April 2021 order, a bench led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud asked the Centre to come back on Wednesday with modalities on mapping out critical habitat areas where overhead transmission lines should be completely banned whereas rest of the 80,688 square kilometres could be freed of the restriction.

“We are not justified in putting an embargo on entire 88,000 odd square kilometres. What we will do here will affect the country’s power generation... You are right that we cannot afford to have GIBs become extinct. At the same time, increasing solar power capacity is equally important because it must come from somewhere. If we don’t enhance the capacity of solar power, we will have to rely on coal based thermal power plants,” the bench, also comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra observed.

GIB, with a wingspan of approximately seven feet and a height of approximately one metre, is among the heaviest flying birds in the world. With the exception of several areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat, 90% of its habitat has vanished. Due to their lack of frontal vision, birds are unable to see powerlines in front of them from a distance and are too heavy to move around them in close quarters. The bird is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in its Red List of threatened species. They are also protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. It is believed that there are less than a 100 of the species surviving.

Wondering whether a court could pass an order in 2021 directing that all power lines passing through the identified GIB habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat go underground, the bench on Tuesday observed that experts could be drafted to mark the areas based on the movement of GIBs and pertinent scientific studies.

“Can we have restricted habitat for GIBs? Restrict the area where these birds are found. Don’t have any transmission line in those areas after mapping them out scientifically...and for potential and other habitat areas, the blanket prohibition can be lifted,” it added.

The court said that it may contemplate issuing directives for heightened scrutiny for critical habitat areas, besides mandating what the government must do in terms of best international practices to increase breeding and conservation of GIBs.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta and additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati agreed to revert on Wednesday with the Centre’s suggestions on the modalities as well as composition of a committee that could earmark the habitat areas and make suitable recommendations for the conservation of GIBs while permitting overhead transmission lines in other areas.

Appearing for PIL petitioners, senior counsel Shyam Divan contended that the thrust of the court order must be on conserving GIBs. “If the Great Indian Bustard goes extinct then it will be the first such avian species to go extinct since independence and this is not a burden which this generation would want to bear,” said Divan, who appeared for the petitioners, including MK Ranjitsinh, former bureaucrat and the architect of the 1972 Act. The PIL filed in 2019 asked for power lines in critical bustard habitats to be buried underground and for the installation of bird diverters on all power lines in semi-critical habitats.

Responding, the bench remarked that it agrees with Divan that GIBs must be protected but at the same time, imposing extreme prohibition without a scientific study may not be a suitable way to go about the issue.

It asked Mehta to consider putting forth names of some experts for constituting a panel that could recommend a way forward to balance the government’s commitment to generate solar power and the steps to conserves GIBs. “It has to be sustainable development,” commented the court.

The ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) filed an application for modifiying the April 2021 judgment of the court, stating that it is “working towards achieving the target set by Government of India to install 1,75,000 MW (excluding large hydro) of renewable energy capacity by 2022 and further increase it to 4,50,000 MW by 2030.” Under the Paris Agreement, India is committed to achieve about 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources by 2030.

According to Wildlife Institute of India, the potential GIB habitat in Rajasthan and Gujarat extends to 80,688 square kilometers, which includes approximately 13,550 square kilometer priority habitat area. The WII report also recommended undergrounding around 200 km of overhead power lines and installing bird diverters on all other power lines to make them prominent for GIB.

The area falling in the GIB habitat covers heritage districts of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur and parts of Bikaner and Barmer. As this region is also crucial for the development of renewable energy, the state government and Centre have argued that the laying down of underground power lines will prove to be counter-productive for the development of renewable energy sector in India.

Various solar energy producers, represented through senior advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Mukul Rohatgi, have also appeared in the matter in their bid to highlight practical difficulties in implementing the court’s order, besides the huge fiscal burden. The associations of solar power generators and power developers in the region estimated that the undergrounding of cable lines will require a cost of ₹55,000 crore. These cables would have to pass through agricultural fields, and there would be safety concerns as the cable could be punctured due to agricultural activities, they added.