The story so far: In a recent judgment, the Supreme Court ruled that citizens have a “right against the adverse effects of climate change”. The Court was giving its verdict in a case that raised concerns over multiple deaths of the Great Indian Bustard due to solar power transmission lines against India’s obligation to meet its emission reduction and increase its energy capacity through non-fossil fuel sources.
What is the context?
In recent years, one of the factors linked to the decline in the population of the Great Indian Bustard, an endangered species, are power lines in Rajasthan and Gujarat, which host several, large solar parks. The concern was that the birds collided against the overhead transmission lines. Environmentalists petitioned the Supreme Court in 2019, pleading that all overhead lines, existing and prospective, be shifted underground. Private and public power companies, supported by the Centre’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), contended that shifting all overhead lines underground would be expensive and impractical, and would significantly hike the cost of solar power, undermining India’s commitment to green growth. The Court had constituted a committee of experts in April 2021 to determine which transmission lines ought to go underground and which ones could remain overground. In its latest judgment, the Court has continued to task an expert committee with overseeing the electrification but quite emphatically stressed that underground electrification — as the government and power-developers have argued — would hinder India’s road to solar electrification.
