• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has sought a response from the Centre on two highly-invasive and alien fish species being used as biological agents for controlling mosquitoes.

• The tribunal was hearing a plea about two fish species — Gambusia Affinis (Mosquitofish) and Poecilia Reticulata (Guppy) — being released in water bodies to control mosquitoes in various states.

• The states which stored and released Mosquitofish were Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh, while Guppy species had been released in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Odisha, the plea said.

• The National Biodiversity Authority has declared these two fish species as “invasive and alien” as they adversely impacted the local aquatic ecosystems by causing food scarcity for the indigenous fish species.

• NGT also referred to the ban imposed on Mosquitofish by countries such as Australia and New Zealand.

• The plea referred to a report by the Invasive Species Specialist Group, as per which Mosquitofish was among the 100 world’s “worst invasive alien species”.

National Green Tribunal

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) was established on October 18, 2010 under the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 for effective and expeditious disposal of cases relating to environmental protection and conservation of forests and other natural resources. 

• It is a specialised body equipped with the necessary expertise to handle environmental disputes involving multi-disciplinary issues. 

• NGT has five places of sitting — the principal bench at New Delhi and zonal benches at Pune, Kolkata, Bhopal and Chennai. 

• The Tribunal is headed by the chairperson who sits in the principal bench and has at least ten but not more than twenty judicial members and at least ten but not more than twenty expert members.

• Any person seeking relief and compensation for environmental damage involving subjects in the legislations mentioned in Schedule I of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 may approach the Tribunal.

Why was NGT set up?

• The precursor to the NGT Act was the 186th Report of the Law Commission of India submitted in March 2003 which came after the Supreme Court repeatedly urged Parliament through various judgments to establish specialised environmental courts, with qualified judges and technical experts on the bench. 

• The Supreme Court also put forward that there should be direct appeals to the Supreme Court from such environmental courts. 

• The Law Commission then recommended creation of a specialised court to deal with the environmental issues. The Law Commission expressed the view that it is not convenient for the High Courts and the Supreme Court to make local inquiries or to receive evidence. 

• Moreover, the superior Courts will not have access to expert environmental scientists on permanent basis to assist them. 

• The NGT was conceived as a complementary specialised forum to deal with all multidisciplinary environmental issues, both as original as well as an appellate authority. 

• The specialised forum was also made free from the rules of evidence applicable to normal courts and was permitted to lay down its own procedure to entertain oral and documentary evidence, consult experts, etc with specific mandate to observe the principles of natural justice.

• The right to a healthy environment has been construed as a part of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution in the judicial pronouncement in India.

• The NGT is set up under the constitutional mandate under Entry 13 List I of Schedule VII to enforce Article 21 in regard to the environment and the Tribunal was conferred special jurisdiction for enforcement of environmental rights.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)