As a matter of national security, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said that while dealing with China's Char Dham roads widening project, the security concern can not be overridden on the Indo-China border.
Even the Centre had sought the court's approval to widen the roads to the border to 10 meters but the non-profit criticised stating that the destruction of wildlife areas may lead to landslides. Hence, the defence and environment needs must be balanced, said by SC while hearing an appeal against the widening of roads in Uttarakhand hills for the "Char Dham project".
The Char Dham highway project is connected to the four shrines of Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath in Garhwal Himalayas which covers almost 899-km of road that Centre wants to broaden near Dehradun.
During the earlier hearing, the Supreme Court stated that roads can't be widened beyond 5 meters. The Centre had cited the "tremendous" Chinese troop buildup on the other side and said under the circumstances, "wide roads are of strategic importance".
"China is building helipads and buildings on the other side… so trucks carrying artillery, rocket launchers and tanks may have to pass through these roads," Attorney General KK Venugopal had said, representing the Centre.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said, representing the non-profit Citizens for Green Doon, drew the court's attention to the massive landslides this year, "which has exacerbated the damage on the mountains," he added.
"I am not going to say that environmental needs trump the defence of the nation but the Army has never said we want these wide roads. Someone high up in political power said we want highways on the Char Dham yatra. The Army reluctantly went along," Mr Gonsalves said.
He also pointed to an earlier instance when the top court put a freeze on 24 projects, taking cognizance of the issue after cloudburst in 2013. Around 17 hydroelectric projects went bumper to bumper in the Himalayas and the cloudburst damage was caused due to such projects, Mr Gonsalves said.
The court said that national security is our priority that requires upgradation.
"Security concerns cannot be overlooked especially in light of border incidents in the recent past. We do not want the troops to be caught in 1962 situation," said the three-judge bench.