The Uttarakhand High Court today asked the state government to get a report from Nagpur's National Environmental Engineering Institute on the reasons of receding water level of the Naini lake.
A division bench comprising Justice Rajeev Sharma and Justice Alok Singh issued this direction while hearing a plea for stopping deforestation in and around Nainital and encroachment around the lake.
The bench has asked the government to procure the NEERI report within six weeks.
The high court earlier on November 7 last year had banned felling of trees within a radius of five kilometre around the lakes of Bhimtal, Nainital, Khurpatal, Sattal and Nauckuchiytal.
It had also banned all new constructions within a radius of two kilometres around the lakes, ruling that "no new construction would be undertaken without getting assessed the bearing capacity of the areas from a specialised institution like NEERI."
"This exercise shall be undertaken within a period of two months and be completed within six months from today (Nov 7)," the court had ruled.
"The bearing capacity shall be assessed taking into consideration the topography and geography of the area, existing population, infrastructure available including natural resources like availability of portable water, capacity and sustainability," it had said.
It had stipulated that "the further construction/s shall take place only as per the recommendations made by the NEERI, Nagpur."
On Monday, on an application by the Lake Development Authority of Nainital, the court clarified that the requisite distances for undertaking construction activity or felling trees would be measured from the edges of the respective lakes.
The court had taken up the matter, taking cognisance of a letter of an NGO worker Tara Dutt Rajput, who had brought to its the notice the threat caused to the fragile ecology and environment of the area abutting the lakes including the flora and fauna.
The main cause of degradation of environment and ecology in the areas surrounding lakes was identified to be unauthorised and haphazard constructions in these areas.
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