Justice Gavai in his address paid homage to the lives lost during the recent Wayanad tragedy.
Supreme Court judge Justice BR Gavai on Saturday stressed upon the need to have sustainable development instead of mindless destruction of environment.
He said that human greed should not cross a limit that we cease to care for the future generations.
In this regard, he highlighted the recent tragedy in Kerala’s Wayanad where over 230 died during in landslides at Mundakkai.
“Today’s conference and particularly the location where it is being held – Kerala is known to be the God’s own country, it is such a beautiful country – particularly in the backdrop of what is a result of a human greed which has been noticed in the recent past about 100 KMs away from here, holding of such a conference on the sustainable transport, tourism and technological Innovations is very important,” he said.
Justice Gavai was speaking at Commonwealth Legal Education Association (CLEA)’s International Conference on ‘Law and Technology: Sustainable Transport, Tourism and Technological Innovations’ in Kerala’s Kumarakom.
“We have seen that on account of conflict between the development and environmental concerns, in the last decade we have suffered many tragedies,” the Supreme Court judge said.
While Justice Gavai emphasised that development is necessary for progress, he also said that all the three wings, legislature, executive and the judiciary, have to work together to balance development with environment.
“No doubt that development is necessary for progress but it cannot be at the cost of the environment. Man has always been said to be greedy but the greed should not go beyond limits where there is no concern for future generations. Therefore, the concept of sustainable development over the last couple of decades has taken importance,” he added.
The top court judge also said that while Constitution requires the State to protect the environment, the citizens also have a fundamental duty to protect the nature.
Justice Gavai also spoke on how environmental jurisprudence has developed in India in the past few decades and referred to the Supreme Court’s orders of 1990s regarding public transport in Delhi.
“Taking note of pollution causing buses in Delhi, in one of the first MC Mehta case, the Supreme Court issued directions to remove such buses and the pollution from buses in Delhi has reduced substantially,” he said.
Speaking regarding his personal experience heading the Green Bench at top court, Justice Gavai said,
“On one hand we have demands of State governments to permit dams to produce electricity but on the other hand there are environmental concerns that it would threaten already fragile ecosystems.”
Justice Gavai in his address also commented on Artificial Intelligence, eco-tourism and man-animal conflict.
“Artificial Intelligence certainly plays an important role but it cannot be a substitute for the human mind. Conflicts with man and the wild have also to be taken into consideration when looking at the tourism, eco-tourism. Eco-tourism is an important aspect because in order to protect the environment, the important stakeholder is the resident of the area. Unless he gets a livelihood of environment, tiger reserve, he would have no interest in protecting the environment… these are all complex issues.”
The judge said that the adverse effects of climate change need to be examined seriously.
“It has been said development is necessary but as has been [also] said anything else you are interested in can’t happen, if you can’t breathe the air and drink the water. Don’t sit this time, do something. You are by accident of it alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet. The challenges of climate change are being noticed world wide. The adverse effects are one of the aspect which need to be looked into seriously”