The country’s highest court has finally drawn a red line where Rajasthan looked away for far too long. After decades of toxic discharge and bureaucratic inertia choking the Jojari–Bandi–Luni river system in western Rajasthan, the Supreme Court has stepped in with the force of a long-overdue monsoon.
Taking note of a documentary that laid bare the brutal truth—industrial sludge, administrative silence, and nearly two million residents living on the edge—the Court declared that what should have been the State’s everyday duty was instead abandoned until judicial intervention forced a reckoning. A bench declared, in no uncertain language, that the State ought to have acted “years ago,” and that compliance with environmental obligations is not optional homework but a constitutional mandate.
The documentary that triggered the Court’s suo motu action painted a grim picture of collapsing ecosystems and human lives caught in the crossfire. Only after the Court opened the file did the machinery stir: factories shut, illegal pipelines uprooted, surprise inspections launched, committees convened, and glossy status reports produced. But the bench cut through the facade—these actions, it said, were not reforms but reactions, born not from duty but from judicial prodding.
To break this cycle of hesitation and half-measures, the Supreme Court has carved out a new watchdog: a High-Level Ecosystem Oversight Committee. At its helm sits a retired judge, joined by key State officials, pollution regulators, urban bodies, industrial development authorities, and district administrations. A technical expert will anchor the scientific backbone of the effort.
Their mandate is as sweeping as it is urgent—craft a time-bound masterplan to restore the Jojari, Bandi, and Luni rivers; ensure that every direction previously issued by environmental tribunals is finally carried out; and chase down decades of contamination with coordinated, unblinking oversight.
The Court made it clear why such a heavy-duty panel is not just helpful but essential: the devastation is vast, the repairs complex, and the State’s past record too frail to be left unsupervised. What is required now is not administrative bursts of energy but a sustained, disciplined reclamation of a river system that has been crying for help.
In the corridors of Delhi, the message echoed with clarity—Rajasthan’s rivers are no longer negotiating with negligence; they now have the Supreme Court’s voice behind them.
