An application last week was filed with the National Green Tribunal for an immediate stay on construction activities at the controversial 1,600 MW thermal power plant in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur district. 

Mirzapur Thermal Energy (UP) Private Ltd is a subsidiary of the Adani Group. It’s alleged to have built a boundary wall and levelled the ground without getting mandatory environmental clearance first. 

While hearing the petition yesterday, a three-member principal bench of NGT – headed by Justice Prakash Shrivastava and including judicial member Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Senthil Vel – said it was “dissatisfied” over construction.

Justice Sudhir Agarwal asked the Adani Group if the project proponent had any environmental clearance to start construction. When the company’s counsel said no, Agarwal said, “If you don’t have a valid EC, how can you continue these activities?” 

Crucially, the project site is surrounded by 10 reserved forests and is home to rich wildlife – sloth bears, leopards, Asiatic wild cats, striped hyenas, chinkaras, blackbucks, mugger crocodiles – according to studies by the government and private entities. Dadri Khurd village, where the plant will be located, was in fact recorded as a forest in the UP Gazette of 1952.

In 2016, the NGT had cancelled environmental clearance for the project, then undertaken by Welspun Energy Private Ltd. At the time, the NGT said the project wasn’t sustainable given the wildlife habitat.

Adani later inked an agreement with Welpun for Rs 400 crore, and the project was expanded from 1,320 MW to 1,600 MW. In May 2024, Adani reapplied for environmental clearance but according to government documents, it’s still pending with the environment ministry. 

While the case has been heard three times since last July for violating the NGT’s 2016 judgement, an interlocutory application was filed on February 17 by conservationist Debadityo Sinha, a trustee of the Vindhyan Ecology & Natural History Foundation.

This application was filed for separate relief and was also listed in the execution application, which was filed by Sinha in July last year. An execution application is filed when court orders are not complied with – in this case, it was non-compliance of the NGT’s 2016 judgement.

Sinha’s lawyer Parul Gupta urged the NGT yesterday to issue immediate directions to halt the ongoing construction, emphasising that it was causing continuous damage to the site and wildlife. Sinha has said the Adani Group was “undertaking illegal construction activities by clearing the vegetation and forest using massive earthwork and levelling the land”.

The NGT then gave Mirzapur Thermal Energy a last opportunity to file an affidavit. The Adani Group hasn’t filed an affidavit yet in court. 

Rejected report

Also discussed in court on February 19 was a report filed by the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board in December, which had taken note of illegal construction at the Mirzapur site. 

“During field visit at above concerned site, construction of pre-cast boundary wall and levelling work of ground was found under progress,” read the report, which was filed on December 12 and then submitted to the NGT. It included photographs of the boundary wall, dumpers and an approach road at the site. 

However, the NGT refused to entertain the report, saying the UPPCB was not party to the case. Instead, it asked the UP government to submit its response to these allegations. 

“The state of UP is different from UPPCB…We can’t rely on someone who is not party to the case. Did we ask for the report from UPPCB?” Justice Prakash Shrivastava asked.

Parul Gupta replied, “Maybe the UP government has asked UPPCB to file a reply.”

After the hearing, Gupta told Newslaundry: “UPPCB is a statutory body and a state department. If any environmental violation is brought to its notice, it has the power to inspect and issue directions whether it has been directed to do so by a court of law.”

In 2019, after a study supported by the Wildlife Trust of India was undertaken, the district’s forest department proposed declaring three forest ranges – including the project site – as conservation reserves. The state government hasn’t taken a decision on this yet. 

Months before approaching the NGT in July last year, petitioner Sinha had written to the ministry about “large scale clearing of vegetation, road construction and site development”. But no action was taken, according to him.

Newslaundry reached out to the Adani Group spokesperson for comment. This report will be updated if we receive a response. 

Correction at 2.52 pm on Feb 21: A quote in this report was erroneously attributed to Justice Agarwal and another to Justice Shrivastava. The attribution has been corrected. The error is regretted.

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