In March 2024, India’s Supreme Court delivered what many environmentalists hailed as a landmark judgment. A bench led by Justice Abhay S. Oka and Justice Sanjay Karol ruled that the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had acted arbitrarily in granting blanket exemptions to certain mining and construction activities. The court made it clear: every project that could harm the environment must first obtain a proper environmental clearance.

This ruling, in the Noble M. Paikada vs. Union of India case, went a step further by declaring “Short-Term Permits” (STPs) and “Disposal Permits” (DPs) illegal, non-est, under law.

These permits had long been used as shortcuts to bypass environmental checks and speed up riverbed mining operations. The judgment, in effect, outlawed a practice that had devastated river systems across India, including Kashmir’s Doodh Ganga and Sukhnag streams.

But, months later, the same old story unfolds in broad daylight. Trucks, excavators, and JCBs are back at the banks of Doodh Ganga in Budgam district, ripping sand and gravel from its bed. And they do this under the same permits, STPs and DPs, that no longer have any legal standing.

This isn’t the first time authorities have turned a blind eye. Earlier, on March 15, 2024, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) imposed an interim penalty of ₹15.79 lakh on two contractors for........

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