93-year-old Farmer Defeats Cement Giant

In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court of India (SCI) ruled in favor of 93-year-old farmer Harbinder Singh Sekhon and other residents of Sangrur city quashing key permissions granted to Shree Cement North Private Limited for establishing a standalone cement grinding unit on 47.82 acres of land. Sekhon led the petitioners including Vasant Valley Public School, Sangrur. The petitioners highlighted the site’s location is in a designated rural agricultural zone and considering its proximity to farmlands, residential habitations, and the school, the unit poses severe risks of particulate dust pollution to public health, particularly children. The court emphasized that cement grinding units involve extensive handling of powdered material, leading to fugitive dust and health hazards that cannot be mitigated by assuming future compliance. It ruled that regulatory frameworks cannot prioritize facilitation over non-derogable obligations to safeguard life, particularly for sensitive receptors like schools and habitations. SCI also quashed the Indian union’s Central Pollution Control Board’s January 2025 reclassification of standalone cement grinding units from the highly polluting Red category to the less stringent Orange category, along with related Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notifications that relaxed siting and regulatory safeguards. Meanwhile, in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh’s (UP), the forest division has unearthed an inter-state gang involved in illegal felling and transportation of khair (cutch) tree wood, seizing over 500 quintals of the valuable timber from Panjab and arresting three persons. The seizure is valued around  USD 55K and marks a first instance of such a large quantity of illegally felled khair wood being recovered from another state. Named Operation Khair, it involved the use of technology and electronic surveillance to track the movement of vehicles carrying the contraband wood across state borders. Found in UP’s Terai forests, Khair wood is used to produce kattha (black cutch)—a key ingredient in pan (folded betel leaf) and gutka (chewable tobacco). Owing to its high commercial value, it is frequently targeted by wood mafias for illegal felling and smuggling. The UP forest division team reached Rajpura, Patiala district, where a large quantity of khair wood was found stored and being processed (earlier coverage).