Gujarat HC junks PIL seeking scrapping of ropeway project

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday dismissed a PIL seeking scrapping of a ropeway project atop the Mount Girnar on the ground it endangers the existence of long-billed vultures found in the region.

A division bench of Chief Justice Vikarm Natha and Justice A J Shastri dismissed the PIL filed by a local farmer, Kanjibhai Bhetariya, a few months after the work on the project in Junagadh district started.

The petitioner, through his lawyer Nandish Thackar, said the project nowhere satisfies the requirement under section 29 of the Wildlife Protection Act that it is being undertaken for the betterment of wildlife of the region.

The permission granted by the National Board for Wildlife (NBW) for the project was based on "unjustifiable" reasons, he said. Also, the NBW's technical committee has said the ropeway could lead to the local extinction of the "Girnari Giddh" (long-billed vultures) and suggested the government to consider an alternative alignment for the project, the PIL said.

Even after the government failed to provide an alternative alignment, the project was approved, it said. The long-billed vulture is a critically endangered species listed in Schedule I under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

The project is meant to carry pilgrims to Ambaji temple located atop the Mount Girnar that falls under the Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in 2007 laid the foundation stone of the project when he was chief minister of Gujarat.

The project was proposed in 1994, but remained stalled for several years before the Union government granted wildlife clearance for it in 2011. It took another five years for the central government to grant environmental clearance.