Hon’ble Dr. Yogendra Kumar Srivastava, J.—Heard Sri Arun Kumar Gupta, learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Shashi Prakash Singh, learned Additional Solicitor General appearing for the Union of India. The State is represented through its learned Standing Counsel.

2. The present public interest litigation has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for a direction commanding the respondents to consider the scientific studies and the reports submitted by the petitioner to the respondents and also the report of Wildlife Institution of India (in short ‘WII’) including its comments and to protect the Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary (in short ‘TWS’) at Kashi (Varanasi), notified as a sanctuary vide notification dated 21.12.1989 issued under Section 18 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (the Act, 1972). A further prayer has been made for an appropriate direction to the respondents not to shift the TWS upstream and to protect and stop the plying of motorboats, inland waterways vessels and ships and also stop human activities in the protected sanctuary area. The third prayer with regard to the issue pertaining to navigation of ships/vessels in the river Ganga, has not been pressed by the petitioner for the present.

3. The records of the case indicate that upon an earlier public interest litigation in Bharat Jhunjhunwala v. Union of India and others, PIL No. 34434 of 2017, filed by the petitioner, raising similar issues with regard to the Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary, this Court vide order dated 10.1.2018 disposed of the petition in the following terms :

“....... In regard thereto, the petition is disposed of granting liberty to the petitioner to supply a copy of the research paper on the protection of Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary Management within four weeks from date, in the event of the same being received by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Wildlife, Lucknow, we hope and trust the paper shall be considered by him or by any other authority/committee who he deems proper.”

4. Pursuant to the aforementioned order, the petitioner is said to have submitted a representation dated 7.2.2018 to the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests in Wildlife, Lucknow. Further, it has been submitted that upon seeking information under the Right to Information Act, the WII forwarded the required institution.

5. The petitioner has referred to a communication dated 16.3.2018 sent by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), UP, Lucknow to the Director Wildlife Institution, Handia, Dehradun, on the subject of review of management effectiveness of TWS, Varanasi wherein it was stated that the location of sanctuary being along the ghats of Varanasi city, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Wildlife) (in short MOEF & CC) had constituted an expert team in June, 2017 to assess the ground realities in the said sanctuary and the expert team has submitted its report to the Ministry and in continuation thereof the MOEF & CC had desired that a review of the management effectiveness of the turtle sanctuary in terms of its biological, ecological and ecosystem service value, possible rationalization of the boundaries in the sanctuary to include mosaic of riverine habitat matrix may be taken at the earliest, and accordingly, it was decided to request the WII to carry out the said study.

6. A technical report entitled “Assessment of the Wildlife Values of the Ganga River from Bijnor to Ballia including Turtle Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttar Pradesh”, submitted by the WII, Dehradun, in July, 2018 is on record. In the report, it has been noted that out of 13 species of turtle reported from the Ganga River, only 5 species were encountered during the field sampling with the combined efforts of visual encounter surveys and in-stream sampling within the TWS and upstream and downstream of the sanctuary limi