Court bans all constructions on waterbodies

Such constructions built on waterbodies would be pulled down, it warned, citing the fate of the police station that was built encroaching a lake in Sholinganallur. 

The first bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy issued the ban following submission by the petitioner’s counsel that despite several directions, construction was progressing on a largescale in the waterbody in Erode. The bench was hearing a plea related to satellite mapping of waterbodies in the State. 

Clarifying that it was not an omnibus ban on construction, but that it was confined to construction activities in areas indicated as waterbodies as per government records, the bench observed that the failure to take care of the remaining waterbodies would leave the future progeny without a planet to live. 

The bench also granted the State government three more weeks to download high resolution images of all taluks and districts to identify the existing waterbodies and corroborate the same with the survey numbers as directed by it. 

It may be noted that considering the everyday complaints received from all over the State regarding waterbodies being encroached or converted into residential or commercial plots, the Chief Justice-led bench had directed obtaining satellite images of all taluks and waterbodies earmarked so that it could not be contended in future that there was no waterbody where there actually was one. 

“Taluk level and even panchayat level satellite images are necessary to protect the waterbodies. At every level, such maps ought to be maintained so that any encroachment can be addressed immediately and the waterbody not desecrated beyond repair,” the court had stressed during a hearing in April.