New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal on Tuesday dismissed a plea against ‘illegal’ slaughterhouses in Uttar Pradesh alleging that they were posing threat to the environment and ruled that only unauthorised and illegal slaughterhouses shall be shut down.
The plea, which was listed before a bench headed by Justice Jawad Rahim, was also seeking the execution of the NGT's 2015 order for closure of all illegal slaughterhouses in the state. But the court raised this point and questioned as to why this plea was filed when an order had already been passed by the tribunal, and to this the petitioner demanded that an order must be passed directing all the District Magistrates to act on it.
The petition has made the Uttar Pradesh government, Central Pollution Control Board, UP Pollution Control Board, state groundwater department and others as parties in the case.
The tribunal had in May 2015 directed state authorities to ensure there is proper regulation of meat shops. The green panel had said that slaughterhouses which do not have permission from the UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) and/or environmental clearance from State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) besides permissions from local authorities will not be allowed to operate either in open or shops.
On Tuesday, the petitioner even submitted that there were many licensed slaughterhouses which were causing adverse effect on the environment. However, the green tribunal dismissed the petition reiterating that only illegal and unauthorised ones will be shut down.
The plea was moved by an environmental activist through advocate Anuja Chauhan who had alleged that the illegal slaughterhouses in UP were discharging untreated effluent into open drains and polluting the environment.
He has alleged that the abattoirs were discharging untreated effluent contaminated with animal waste and blood of slaughtered animals into open drains which go into the tributaries of the Ganga and the Yamuna, polluting them.
The plea also highlighted the issue of illegal extraction of groundwater by slaughterhouses without the requisite permission from the competent authorities and raises the issue of air pollution caused by the release of toxic fumes emitted from furnaces to extract animal bone fat.
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