In the year 2009, the High Court of Himachal Pradesh which had taken suo moto notice of a news paper report on the loss of green cover due to Hydro projects. The court had appointed a one man committee to evaluate the impacts of Hydroelectric projects which submitted its report in 2010. There were many discrepancies in the findings of the committee and shortcomings in the process of its appointment. The report had underreported the environmental damages caused by almost all of the projects that it evaluated. It was feared that if the report was to be adopted as it is, the issue of environmental damage caused by hydroprojects in Himachal would get a short shrift and encourage further degradation of ecology. The case is being heard in the Shimla High Court and environmental activists and representatives of affected people have intervened in the court case highlighting the ecological damages in the projects that the court appointed committee evaluated.
The Shukla Committee Case
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