‘Appalling apathy’: 228 students face wildlife risk, Bombay High Court raps government

An additional affidavit filed by the petitioner on August 19 stated that 228 students from eight villages were travelling to five schools and faced continuous exposure to wildlife attacks. The maximum distance travelled by a students was about 30 kilometres, and that one class 6 student walked for four hours every day because there was no transport facility, it said.

Justices Sharmila U Deshmukh and Neeraj P Dhote noted that a Class 6 student walked four hours daily to school due to lack of transport. (Image enhanced using AI)

Previous directions

An interim order was passed on April 2, through which the court had granted relief in form of prayers seeking measures to protect students travelling to schools in areas vulnerable to wildlife attacks. The court had directed identification of dangerous schools prone to wildlife attacks by the district collector and the forest department within seven days along with joint deployment of safe school transport for children, escorted by a dedicated rapid response team (RRT).

The petitioner had sought that the RRT be permanently stationed near identified attack-prone schools between 6 am and 6 pm every day. The April 2 order had also recorded the petitioner’s submission that securing the approach to schools was a statutory obligation under Rule 6 of the RTE Rules.

There was a separate prayer regarding medical help, which was sought by the petitioner in form of the permanent deployment of an advanced life support ambulance at the Shittur-Warun primary centre. The petitioner relied on Section 38V of the Wildlife Protection Act and Article 21 of the Constitution to argue that the state has a duty to protect both wildlife and citizens from wildlife-related harm.

Directions were not followed

When the matter came up on August 19, the court noted that the directions had not been complied with. It said, “Despite the order having been passed on 2nd April 2026, absolutely nothing has been done by the District Collector and the Forest Department to identify the dangerous schools or to deploy safe school transport for the school children escorted by a dedicated Rapid Response Team (‘RRT’).”

The court also said that neither the district collector nor the forest department had filed an affidavit showing compliance with its April 2 order. Expressing concern over the circumstances in which the children were travelling to school, the court said that students from eight villages were travelling to five schools and that some were undertaking long journeys without transport facilities.

“Being concerned with this situation, the order of 2nd April 2026 was passed, which has been conveniently disregarded by the Respondents Authorities. We cannot countenance such conduct on behalf of the District Collector and the Forest Department,” it said.

The court directed the district collector and the forest department to file affidavits within one week explaining the non-compliance with the April 2 order and warned that the authorities could face serious judicial scrutiny if their explanation did not satisfy the bench.

“We make it clear that if we are not satisfied with the explanation, we will be constrained to take a very serious view of the matter,” it said.