M.K. Ranjitsinh & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors.
Background
The petitioners, environmentalists, filed a public interest writ petition to protect the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) and the Lesser Florican, two bird species on the verge of extinction in parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. They sought interim directions requiring the states to prevent further overhead power lines, windmills and solar infrastructure in the birds' priority habitats, and to install "bird diverters" on existing power lines, citing a Wildlife Institute of India study estimating around one lakh bird deaths a year from collisions with power lines, including GIBs dying from collisions with high-tension transmission lines. The Union of India's Ministry of Power itself admitted in an affidavit that the GIB, lacking frontal vision and being a heavy, poorly maneuverable bird, is especially vulnerable to collision with overhead power lines.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court invoked the "ecocentric" (nature-centred, as opposed to purely human-interest-centred) principle of environmental jurisprudence drawn from its earlier Godavarman and Centre for Environmental Law rulings, and held that urgent protective steps were warranted given the real risk of extinction. It ordered that overhead power lines in identified priority GIB habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat be converted into underground power lines wherever technically feasible, with bird diverters to be installed immediately on power lines pending such conversion. The Court constituted a three-member technical committee of wildlife and energy experts to assess feasibility of undergrounding specific power lines where doubt existed, directed the undergrounding (where feasible) to be completed within one year, and listed out specific stretches of power lines in Kutch (Gujarat) and Rajasthan to be undergrounded or fitted with diverters.
Lesson Learnt
Courts can and do grant specific, technically detailed interim relief in environmental public interest litigation, including infrastructure changes like undergrounding power lines, when expert evidence shows an endangered species faces imminent extinction, applying a "nature-centred" rather than purely human-interest approach to balancing development against conservation.