Mother Earth Is Clearly Urging A Call To Action: Rajasthan HC Takes Suo-Moto Cognizance To Save Citizens From Drastic Impact Of Climatic Change
|The Rajasthan High Court has taken suo-moto cognizance to protect citizens from the drastic situation of climatic change in response to the extreme heatwave causing many unwanted untimely causalities.
To address the pressing issue of extreme weather conditions affecting the people, the Jaipur Bench took cognizance of the health impacts of extreme heat and sought a "speedy solution" to protect the citizens of the State from the effects of climate change.
A Single Bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand observed, “Climate change is one of the more serious threat which our planet is facing now-a-days. Temperatures have been steadily increasing leading to heatwaves, which have affected mass people and causing many unwanted untimely causalities…Taking serious note of the situation, a suo-moto cognizance is taken to find out speedy solution to save the citizens of the State from drastic situation of climatic changes.”
The Court pointed out various human activities, such as deforestation, pollution, and adulteration of food items, which accelerated the speed of “destruction of the planet.”
“A year before last, the citizens of the State have witnessed that there was huge rainfall during rainy and monsoon season and the Government authorities were not having sufficient places, dams, etc. for storage of rainy water. Due to such inaction on the part of the State authorities, billions gallons of water was wasted,” the Court remarked.
To address these challenges, the Court has directed the government to implement the Heat Action Plan prepared under the Rajasthan Climate Change Project effectively. Measures such as providing cooling spaces, issuing alerts to the public, and compensating the families of heatwave victims were mandated.
“Mother Earth is clearly urging a call to action. Nature is suffering. Extreme heart now-a-days crossing the temperature more than 50 Degree Celsius have affected millions of people of the State of Rajasthan and across the nation,” the Court added.
The Court directed the government to provide cooling spaces, shades on the traffic signals, spots, etc. near the roads and highways for the benefit of the general public at large, daily wage earners, rickshaw or cart pullers and porters, birds and animals with facility of drinking water, ORS packets, mango panna, etc. in such a manner for their benefit to save them from heat stroke.
Consequently, the Court directed, “Looking to the fact that large number of persons have lost their lives due to extreme heatwaves and heat strokes during summers and chilling cold during winters, it is high time for the Governments to bring appropriate legislation and enact the statutory Act arising out of the Prevention of Deaths Due to Heat and Cold Waves Bill, 2015.”
Accordingly, the High Court listed the matter for further hearing on July 1st, 2024.
Cause Title: In Re: Save The Planet Earth And The Future Generation Of This Universe