Encroachment of water bodies leading to floods, drought in Tamil Nadu: Madras High Court

The Madras High Court recently cautioned against repeated instances of encroachment of waterbodies in Tamil Nadu stating that such encroachments were leading to floods and drought in the State [Kamalanathan v. State of Tamil Nadu]..In an order passed on August 30, a bench of Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N Mala said that this was on account of the fact that whenever there was rain, water could not accumulate in the tanks due to encroachments. "It would not be out of place to mention that on account of rampant encroachment on waterbodies and tanks, the State of Tamil Nadu suffered drought and in contrast floods.This happened for the reason that whenever there was rain, water could not accumulate in the tanks on account of encroachments and in contrast, the condition of the flood was seen at times due to non-availability of area where water can store on account of the encroachments on the waterbodies or tanks. The need of the hour is to protect/safeguard waterbodies/tanks," the Court said.The Court, therefore, underlined the need to take care of the nature. "If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us. The problem of global warming is prevalent only because of the failure of the human beings to take care of the nature. If we keep on affecting the nature, it would affect the human beings and it is happening day-in and day-out in the form of natural disasters like tsunami, earthquake, etc.," the Court stated.It was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by seven petitioners who had received eviction notices from local and district level authorities under the the Tamil Nadu Protection of Tanks and Eviction of Encroachment Rules, 2007.The petitioners were accused by the State authorities of having encroached upon land reserved for waterbodies. Their counsel, VM Venkatramana, argued that they had not been granted a fair hearing before being served with the eviction notices.The Tamil Nadu government, represented by special government pleader A Selvendran, argued that the 2007 Rules did not provide for a hearing before an eviction notice.As per the Rules, an encroacher has to be served with an eviction notice, which the State did, Selvendran argued. Therefore, the present writ petitions must be dismissed, it was contended.The Court took note of the submissions and said that it could not condone any instance of encroachment of public grounds, water bodies etc."It is the duty of every citizen to maintain water-bodies, tanks,grazing land, and even forests. Time and again, this court has held that unchecked encroachment of waterbodies has vastly reduced the areas reserved in the interest of public and ecological balance," it said while dismissing the pleas..[Read Order]