SC bans mining activities within one km radius of national parks, wildlife sanctuaries
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday banned mining activities within an area of one km from national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, noting that such activities will be hazardous to the wildlife.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran was considering pleas on issues related to the notification of areas under Saranda Wildlife Sanctuary (SWL) and the Sasangdaburu Conservation Reserve (SCR) as a conservation reserve in Jharkhand.
"It has been the consistent view of this court that mining activities within one km of the protected area will be hazardous to the wildlife. Though in the case of Goa Foundation, the said directions were issued with respect to the State of Goa, we find that such directions need to be issued on a pan-India basis.
"We direct that mining within national parks and wildlife sanctuaries and within an area of one km from boundary of such national park or wildlife sanctuary shall not be permissible," the bench said.
The top court also directed the Jharkhand government to notify the region as a wildlife sanctuary.
It clarified that the rights of the tribals and forest dwellers in the region should be protected as per the Forest Rights Act and asked the state government to widely publicise it.
Earlier, the bench had asked the Jharkhand government to take a decision to declare the ecologically-rich Saranda region as a reserve forest.
The matter pertained to a long-pending proposal to notify the Saranda and Sasangdaburu forest areas in West Singhbhum district as a wildlife sanctuary and conservation reserve, respectively.
The state government, in its affidavit, had earlier said it proposed to notify an area of 57,519.41 hectares, as against the original proposal of 31,468.25 hectares, as wildlife sanctuary.
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Two arrested in K'taka for assaulting minors, uploading CSAM content
Bengaluru (PTI): Two men were arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two minor girls, recording the acts on mobile phones and uploading the videos online as child sexual abuse material, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Kiran Kumar (29), hailing from Chitradurga district, and Aditya M K (20), hailing from Shivamogga district, they said.
A probe was initiated after information was received from the NCRP portal regarding a suspected instance of creation of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) for online dissemination, police said.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Kaggalipura Police Station under relevant sections of the IT Act on May 10, they added.
Investigation revealed that two minor girl victims were exploited and videos were created and uploaded to the internet. The child victims have subsequently recorded their statements as per procedure and further necessary legal steps have been taken, Pronab Mohanty Director General of Police, Cyber Command, said in a statement.
Based on the statements of the victims, the accused persons, who allegedly assaulted the minors, recorded the acts on mobile phones and uploaded the videos online, were arrested, he said.
Following the probe, sections 65(2) (rape) and 70 (gangrape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with relevant sections of the POCSO Act, have been added to the FIR, police said.
Officials collected relevant information and on May 12, arrested the accused persons and seized three mobile phones belonging to them, in which the videos had allegedly been recorded, he said.
The accused were later produced before the court and taken into police custody for further investigation, he added.
According to him, in CSAM cases, police usually apprehend offenders who have downloaded such content or have kept them in their possession after obtaining them from elsewhere, usually the internet.
"The present case is one of the very few instances where content creators and uploaders have been apprehended," Mohanty added.
