Above: Photo by Shipra Das 

The Supreme Court bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta on Thursday (July 12) told UP, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan to file their responses on the formation of elephant corridors.

The bench further directed the Chief Secretaries of these states to appear on next date of hearing.

During today’s hearing, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) ANS Nadkarni informed the bench that only three states have responded on elephant corridors while 19 states have not responded.

To which the bench said that States don’t listen to the Centre.

The bench was hearing the plea filed by S Rajaseekaran raising concern over the ecological imbalance and seeking protection and conservation of forests throughout the country, protection of wildlife, ban on felling of trees and depletion of underground water level.

—India Legal Bureau