Entire Himalayan Range Facing Issues: Supreme Court on Floods, Landslides in North India

The Supreme Court observed that the entire Himalayan region, not just Himachal Pradesh, faces escalating environmental vulnerabilities, including severe floods and landslides. The Court took suo motu notice of ecological degradation and increasing natural calamities that affected hundreds of lives recently. It criticized the Himachal government’s report for limited measures and broad scope without concrete action plans and announced expanding the PIL to cover the entire Himalayan range. The Court emphasized urgent sustainable management of natural resources and directed governments to provide detailed mitigation strategies. The Bench highlighted how human activity has aggravated nature’s fury, resulting in deadly disasters and massive property damage. The matter is scheduled for further orders on September 23. This judgment underscores judiciary intervention in environmental governance to address climate change impacts and disaster preparedness in ecologically sensitive zones.