In this column, TBI editorial brings you articles from experts across India, tackling the challenges that matter most. These insightful pieces offer practical solutions and inspire us to take proactive steps in addressing the issues we face in our communities and beyond.

About the author: Ekta Sati currently works with the Ministry of Environment, blending legal acumen with heartfelt advocacy for the planet. With over three years of experience, a Master’s in Environmental Law from Jindal, and work with WWF-India and Sankalptaru, she brings policy to life. Passionate about storytelling, she writes on climate and the changemakers shaping a greener tomorrow.

While protests, clean-up drives, and public awareness campaigns continue to shape Dehradun’s growing environmental movement, another, quieter battle is being waged in the courtrooms. As forests shrink and fragile landscapes face mounting threats, Uttarakhand’s legal spaces are becoming powerful grounds for defending the region’s green heritage.

In recent years, lawyers, citizen groups, and even individual petitioners have stepped up to challenge policies that put the state’s rivers, forests, and wildlife corridors at risk. They are filing Public Interest Litigations (PILs), pushing for accountability, and using the law as a shield to protect what remains.

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What’s remarkable is that many of these legal victories are not being led by large organisations, but by ordinary people who refused to stay silent—lawyers, students, long-time residents, and first-time activists. Their persistence is proving that environmental justice doesn’t always begin on the streets; sometimes, it begins with a single petition, quietly filed by someone who believes their city and its forests deserve better.

This story follows the lawyers, citizens, and unsung heroes who are using the courts to fight for Uttarakhand’s ecological future—and winning.

Advocate Abhijay Negi on environmental justice in Uttarakhand

Advocate Abhijay Negi is one of Uttarakhand’s most respected environmental defenders and a leading voice in the state’s civic and legal battles for ecological protection. For over 15 years, he has been at the forefront of these efforts, relentlessly challenging policies that threaten the region’s delicate ecosystems. As the founder of the NGO Making a Difference by Being the Difference........

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