In Brief
The Supreme Court modified its April 2021 order that imposed a blanket ban on overhead power transmission lines across 99,000 sq km to protect the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB). The Court recognized the GIB's dire extinction threat but found that blanket undergrounding is technically infeasible, economically prohibitive, and inconsistent with India's binding Paris Agreement commitments to expand renewable energy. Rather than sacrifice either species conservation or climate action, the Court appointed a multi-disciplinary Expert Committee to devise nuanced, evidence-based strategies balancing GIB protection with sustainable renewable energy development. The Court articulated for the first time a fundamental constitutional right to be free from adverse climate change effects, rooted in Articles 14 and 21.
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