The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee, which has been probing illegal constructions, hill cutting and tree felling in Himachal Pradesh’s ecologically sensitive green belt areas, is set to visit Shimla soon. Special secretary, disaster management, Pushpendra Rana, said the committee visited Dharamshala on September 6 to collect field-level information and met officials to discuss issues relating to ecology and environmental conditions prevailing in the state. The visit to Shimla is expected by the first week of October, he said.
Rana said the committee was examining development practices and environmental concerns in the state and was expected to submit its findings to the Supreme Court. The case comes up for hearing on October 26. “The objective is to understand the ground realities and examine how development can be balanced with environmental conservation,” Rana said.
The committee has been authorised to call for records, maps, satellite imagery, scientific studies and other relevant material; conduct field inspections wherever necessary; and associate experts in ecology, forestry, geology, hydrology, disaster management, urban planning and climate change.
In July 2025, the Supreme Court warned that Himachal Pradesh could “vanish in thin air from the map of the country” if unregulated development continued. It assigned the inquiry to the committee, which was created for an altogether different forest case about two decades ago.
What triggered the drive
It began when a hotel developer filed a special leave petition challenging a Himachal Pradesh High Court judgment that refused to entertain the company’s challenge to a notification declaring Tara Devi Hill, near Shimla, a green area where construction was barred. The HC held that the company lacked locus, since it had never sought or received permission to purchase agricultural land in the state. The SC dismissed the plea while taking cognisance of a broader crisis. Noting the hundreds killed in floods and landslides in 2025, the court observed that hydropower projects, four-lane highways, deforestation and unplanned multi-storey construction had pushed the state to the brink of self-inflicted ecological collapse. Rather than disposing of the matter, the Bench instructed the registry to register a fresh suo motu writ petition in public interest to examine the state’s ecology as a whole.
The SC, while handing over the probe to the CEC, had allowed two interlocutory applications filed by environmentalist Yogendra Mohan Sengupta. Sengupta’s applications seeking interim relief stated that Shimla’s 17 notified green belt areas, spread over around 414 hectares and comprising predominantly deodar forests, were critical for maintaining slope stability, regulating water movement and preserving the town’s fragile ecology. He has sought a court-monitored survey of all 17 green belt areas to identify alleged illegal constructions, hill cutting and tree felling, besides demarcating the green belt boundaries on the ground using GIS and satellite imagery.