Supreme Court To Hear Plea Raising Issue Of Forest Guard Allegedly Being Run Over By Sand Miners In MP

The matter was mentioned before a bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta, which is hearing a suo motu case titled 'In Re: Illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary and threat to endangered aquatic wildlife'.

The counsel, who mentioned the matter before the bench, said the application was filed by the Apex Court-appointed amicus curiae in the pending suo motu case relating to illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary.

The National Chambal Sanctuary, also called the National Chambal Gharial Wildlife Sanctuary, is a 5,400 sq km tri-state protected area. Besides the endangered gharial (long-snouted crocodile), it is home to the red-crowned roof turtle and the endangered Ganges river dolphin.

Located on the Chambal river near the tripoint of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, the sanctuary was first declared a protected area in Madhya Pradesh in 1978 and now constitutes a long narrow eco-reserve co-administered by the three states.

"As amicus, we have moved a fresh IA (interlocutory application) in this matter to alert your lordships about a very grave incident that occurred yesterday when a forest guard was murdered after a tractor ran over him when they attempted to stop the tractor," the counsel told the bench.

The counsel urged that the suo motu matter was listed for hearing on May 11 and the IA be taken up before that.

The bench said it would hear the application on April 13.

"There have been a few more incidents. You will find some very grave incidents," the bench told the counsel.

A 35-year-old forest guard was killed after a tractor-trolley allegedly run by illegal sand miners ran over him in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district on Wednesday morning, police had said.

The incident took place on National Highway-552 near Ranpur village, about 20 km from the district headquarters, when forest personnel tried to stop a sand-laden tractor-trolley, police had said.

It had said that forest guard Harkesh Gurjar, a part of the patrol team, attempted to stop the vehicle, but its driver ran him over, killing him on the spot.

While hearing the suo motu matter on April 2, the Apex Court slammed the Rajasthan government for "facilitating" illegal sand mining, and stayed its notification de-notifying 732 hectares of the National Chambal Sanctuary, saying it will not allow de-notification of any reserve land for protected species.

Terming "mining mafia" as "dacoits", the apex court had said a number of government officials, including sub-divisional magistrates and policemen, were killed in Rajasthan by mining mafia.

While hearing the matter on March 20, the Apex Court had taken serious note of the destruction of habitats of aquatic animals due to rampant illegal sand mining in the National Chambal Sanctuary.

On March 13, the Apex Court took suo motu cognisance based on certain news reports pertaining to rampant illegal mining from the sand banks of Chambal river.

With PTI Inputs