The Supreme Court on Friday took suo motu cognisance of rampant illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary posing a grave threat to wildlife including the critically endangered gharial and the endangered Gangetic dolphin.
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The sanctuary is also one of the few nesting and breeding grounds for the endangered bird, the Indian Skimmer
A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said, “We have taken note of some recent newspaper articles and other reports which suggest that the entire protected area falling under the National Chambal Sanctuary where gharial preservation is going on, are being rampantly mined.”
The bench placed the matter before the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant to pass necessary orders for assigning the matter to an appropriate bench. The bench said, “We have taken cognisance of the illegal sand mining within the protected area of the sanctuary and the threat it poses to the endangered aquatic wildlife.”
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In 1978, the area along Chambal river covering areas spanning across Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, was designated as a wildlife sanctuary.
The Chambal river is home to the largest population of gharials in the world.
