Gokarna pollution case: NGT adds tourism dept to list of respondents

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has added the Tourism Department to the list of respondents to the case of pollution in the temple town of Gokarna.

The NGT’s Principal Bench in New Delhi registered a suo motu case in March this year following DH’s report under the title ‘Unregulated tourism pushing Gokarna to the edge’. The matter was transferred to the Southern Bench (Chennai) which has jurisdiction over Karnataka.

The KSPCB submitted an inspection report last month flagging several issues highlighted by DH. The report underlined the increased pollution load due to tourism, including religious tourism on the festival days.

A bench of Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member Satyagopal Korlapati of the Southern Bench has resumed the hearing and expanded the respondents. “As the Director - Department of Tourism, State of Karnataka, is a necessary party to this proceeding, we suo motu implead them as additional respondent..,” the order said.