E forest officials, conservationists challenge functioning of India’s apex Wildlife Board in Delhi HC
A group of retired forest and wildlife officials and conservationists on Wednesday (July 8, 2026) moved the Delhi High Court with a public interest litigation
A group of retired forest and wildlife officials and conservationists on Wednesday (July 8, 2026) moved the Delhi High Court with a public interest litigation (PIL) petition challenging the functioning of the Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and its Standing Committee (SC-NBWL), alleging that the two bodies have become a “clearing house” that routinely diverts protected areas to roads, mining, industry and other non-conservation projects. The 10 petitioners — led by retired Indian Forest Service officer Prakriti Srivastava, and including M.K. Ranjitsinh, the 88-year-old former civil servant widely regarded as the principal drafter of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972; conservationists Prerna Singh Bindra and Debadityo Sinha, along with Kerala-based NGO Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi — has not asked the court to strike down any particular clearance. Instead, they are seeking binding guidelines governing how the two bodies take decisions. Their demands include requiring the NBWL to record written reasons showing how each diversion benefits wildlife, as Sections 29 and 35(6) of the Act mandate; to commission independent expert impact assessments and place them in the public domain before any decision; to publish a status report on the ecological effects of its clearances every two years; to map, using GIS, how much protected land remains functional after diversions; and to publish minutes recording each member’s vote and any dissent.
They also seek a condition that twice the diverted area be added to a protected area or wildlife corridor. 97% proposals cleared Central to the case is the claim that the Standing Committee approved more than 97% of proposals for diverting, reducing or de-notifying protected land between 2014 and 2026, often considering over 100 proposals in a single day’s meeting. The petition says the full NBWL, meant to meet annually, convened in 2025 after a 13-year gap, leaving the Standing Committee as its de facto operational arm. The NBWL is the apex statutory authority on wildlife under the 1972 Act, chaired by the Prime Minister with the Environment Minister as vice-chairperson. No protected-area boundary can be altered without its approval, and it advises governments on conservation policy across India’s 1,134 protected areas, which cover roughly 5% of the country’s land. Challenges to the committee’s clearances are not new.
Under a 2015 Supreme Court order, SC-NBWL recommendations to rationalise protected-area boundaries must be placed before the court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC), which may raise objections before the court. The petitioners argue that such a practice has fallen into disuse. The Goa Foundation, an environmental outfit, used that route in 2020 wherein they asked the CEC to examine SC-NBWL clearances for projects through the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary and Mollem Park in Goa. A separate 2025 petition before the Supreme Court questioned large-scale forest diversions. The petition filed in the Delhi High Court is broader in context as it is raising questions over the institution’s overall functioning rather than individual projects. The government is expected to file its reply in court by August 18, with the next hearing scheduled on September 18. Incidentally, the SC-NBWL had its 91st meeting in Coimbatore on Wednesday.
The BriefWire