The court mandated the compliance with the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules, emphasizing the public trust doctrine in protecting water bodies and requiring remedial measures for unauthorized constructions.

JUDGMENT

1. The grievance of the applicant against the respondents are flouting the settled environmental principle and violating the norms by carrying out illegal permanent construction in Dalsagar lake of Seoni City in Seoni District Madhya Pradesh, which is registered as wetland under wetlands protection and management rules 2017. The non applicant initiated the permanent construction of a foot over bridge between the land and the central island of Dalsagar Lake, Seoni City in District Seoni, M.P. to facilitate this construction, the Municipal Counseldismantled the peripheral boundary of Dalsagar, to completely drain all the water. The construction of this permanent foot over bridge is a gross violation of the wetlands protection and management rules 2017, as Dalsagar lake comes under National Wetland List at Number - 1202.

2. Dal Sagar Lake also known as Dal Sagar Talab is a manmade lake. It is an inland lake situated in the heart of Seoni city having GPS coordinates as (latitude:22.2001, Longitude:79.4042). It has a total area of approximately 18.0 hectare. A small island is located in the middle of this lake. This lake falls under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Counsel Seoni.As per the National Wetland atlas prepared by Space Application Center, ISRO and maintained at VEDAS (Visualization of Earth Observation Data and Archival System) Portal, it is an inland manmade pond of area 17.5 Hectare and has wetland code 1202, which is also mentioned in the petition but it is not included in the state wetland list prepared by the state wetland authority. As per the inventory of wetlands (>2.25 ha) of Seoni district (M.P.) prepared as per the guidelines for preparation of inventory of the wetlands (conservation and management) rules ,2017, it is an entry no. 53 with wetland code 234560394 having area 18.31 hectare and situated within the jurisdiction of Municipal Counsel Seoni. Though it is not a Ramsar Site as per the Ramsar convention.

3. Municipal Counsel Seoni came up with the plan to install a statue of 16^th century Gond King Raja Dalpat Shah on the island. In order to connect the island with main land and for the ease of the visitors, a Foot Over Bridge (F.O.B.) Construction work was started at the site approximately six months ago. Subsequently a case was filed before the NGT.

4. The matter was taken up by this Tribunal and notices were issued to the respondent. In compliance thereof, the reply by the respondents has been filed. During the course of hearing, this Tribunal constituted a committee to submit the factual and action taken report and State PCB was directed to submit the action taken report. In compliance thereof, the report of the joint committee, response on the committee report, and the action taken report has been filed by the respondents. Heard the argument of the Learned Counsel for the parties and perused the record.

5. The contention of the Learned Counsel for the applicant are that, the Dalsagar Lake has been notified as a wetland and falls under the jurisdiction of the state Wetland authority of Madhya Pradesh, as per notification no-1202-year 2019, issued under the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules 2017. A small island located in the middle of this lake provides shelter and breeding ground for a variety of birds, reptiles, and other creatures, including winter migratory birds. Unfortunately, this fragile ecology of island has been damaged by cutting of trees and the construc