PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa ordered the persons involved in the operations to halt all further import of ore from Karnataka and its loading on trucks at Kalay railway station to make applications for consent under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The Court also restrained the persons involved from acting on any decision of the Chief Wildlife Warden for a period of two weeks, to enable them to contest the decision, if required.
The Court passed this order while disposing of the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Goa Foundation challenging ore unloading and loading operations at Kalay within the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Court allowed the company and its contractor to transport the balance of 2,025 MT of quantity of ore from the Kalay railway station to the Adrem jetty within a week, as bulk of the consignment had already been lifted. The contractor had already transported 9,526 MT of ore to Adrem jetty.
All contentions of parties were kept open. In the meanwhile, no further loading/unloading operations were permitted at the Kalay railway station.
The unloading/loading operations was done by Vedanta Ltd which was importing ore from Karnataka for its own purposes. The company did not have the consent of the Chief Wildlife Warden for the activity.
The South Western Railway (SWR) authorities too conceded they did not have a permit, but claimed they did not require any such permit for such activity on land belonging to the railways.
