The Gujarat High Court on Friday issued notice to the state government on a fresh public interest litigation (PIL) against a windmill park, which is allegedly being constructed close to a reserve forest in Talaja Range. The petition has been filed by Manish Bharti Goswami, a Bhavnagar resident and president of Lion Nature Youth Foundation. A division bench led by Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy issued notice to the state government and sought their response. The PIL claims that Veer Energy & Infrastructure Limited, an Ahmedabad-based firm, is constructing 27 large wind mills in the most crucial lion habitat near the reserve forest at Talaja Range. It said windmills in the area would be detrimental to the existence of lions and other wildlife. According to the petitioner, the firm was granted permission for construction of windmill park in 18 hectares in July 2012. He claimed while granting permission, the firm was asked to maintain distance of about 1.5 km from the reserved forest. However, the wind mill was set up at a distance of 200 m because of which the work was stopped. The PIL claimed that the chief forest conservator, Gandhinagar, through a letter dated December 21, 2016, wrote to the forest conservator, Junagadh, that the distance between the windmill and the reserved forest should be only 50 m.
