A single bench of Supreme Court Presided by Tanka Bahadur Moktan has issued an interim order asking the government not to proceed construction activities and stop all the activities including clearing the forest at Proposed Nijgadh International Airport till further notice.

The interim order has stopped the government’s move to start the clearance of forest and construction of the airport within December. This is a major success for the environmentalists and conservationists to conserve the rain forest and persevere the habitat of endangered Asiatic elephant and people leaving in the areas who will likely to face inundation and flood.

Filed by senior advocate Krishna Prasad Bhandari, former secretary Dr. Dwarikanath Dhungel, former acting auditor general Sukdev Khatri, environmentalist Bharat Basnet and 11 others, the petitioners has demanded to stop the clearing of the forest and the construction of airport in the area.

The bench also asked cabinet secretariat and Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to present the reasons why does the government want to construct the airport at Nijgadh? The bench also asked both the parties to present their views whether to continue interim order.

The interim order given by single bench boosts the environmentalists who have been fighting to protect the destruction of natural forest and habitat of endangered Asiatic Elephants and other endangered wild animals.

Hearing continues in a division bench presided by Chief Justice Cholendra Sumsher Rana and Justice Kumar Regmi in another petition filed by senior advocate Prakash Mani Sharma, Dinesh Tripathy, environmental and conservationist activist Chanda Rana, Sanjaya Adhikari and others.

The petitioners have demanded mandamus to cancel the faulty EIA and construction of the airport on that basis. They have also demanded Certiorari directing the government to protect the environmentally valuable forests and fauna of Nijgadh.