"We note with deep appreciation the government of India's in-principle nod for declaring the 135-km stretch of the Ganga between Gaumukh and Uttarkashi as an eco-sensitive zone in November, 2010. We demand that the same principles be applied for the conservation of the area surrounding the Amarnath shrine in Kashmir," civil society groups said in a statement here.
The groups said no human activity that will irreversibly damage the fragile ecology of the place be undertaken around the Amarnath yatra area.
"Application of uniform principles of conservation and protection are not only necessitated by the imperatives of the National Environment Policy and the National Forest Policy but also emphasised by the uniform standards of judicial principles," they said.
The civil society groups expressed serious concern over the recent Supreme Court directions to Kashmir government for undertaking construction of roads and other infrastructure in the environmentally-fragile Himalayan habitat around the Amarnath cave shrine in the Kashmir Valley. More
