The application, filed by environmentalist Reenu Paul, comes after the matter in the PIL, which had sought directions to stop construction on natural slopes higher than 30 degrees, was not listed since August 2024.
Following an urgent application in a public interest litigation flagging illegal construction in Mussoorie in contravention of bylaws and regulations, the Uttarakhand High Court has asked the state government to file a reply in three weeks.
The application, filed by environmentalist Reenu Paul, comes after the matter in the PIL, which had sought directions to stop construction on natural slopes higher than 30 degrees, was not listed since August 2024.
The court had directed the state respondents to file the counter affidavit within six weeks. “That the urgency in the present matter is that despite specific orders of this Hon’ble Court directing all concerned authorities to ensure a strict enforcement of the 2015 Amendments, till date no concrete actions have been taken and such illegal constructions still exist,” the application said.
Part 4.4 of the 2015 Amendments made in the Uttarakhand Building Construction and Development Bylaws/ Regulations, 2011, had explicitly placed a ban on constructions at such places where the intensity of landslide is high and continuous and where the natural slope is higher than 30 degrees.
Despite the ban, the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority and Municipal Council of Mussoorie are permitting constructions on the foothills on natural slopes in Mussoorie with more than 30 degrees, the plea argued.
The application states that the state government’s Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre’s recommendation that “surface slopes of more than 25 degrees are kept free of anthropogenic intervention and due care is taken in case developmental initiatives are to be taken on these slopes” is flouted.
Citing the recent reports of land subsidence of a Joshimath-like disaster and the 2025 seismic zonal map of the Bureau of Indian Standards, under which the entire state of Uttarakhand has been placed in the most sensitive Zone 6, the application said that there has been no action from the government against “unabashed construction”.
The application also cited reports and scientific studies undertaken on landslide susceptibility of the foothills of the Himalayas, especially the Doon Valley region, that confirm that slopes greater than 30 degrees are generally prone to landslides owing to other triggering factors. “What merits further attention of this Hon’ble Court is the fact that, as recent as in 2024, the new Dehradun Master Plan 2024 has, for the first time, identified ‘earthquake fault line areas’, where undertaking building construction will be strictly prohibited on both sides of the fault lines. The Master Plan clearly finds that the ‘major fault line’ passes through Rajpur Road and Sahastradhara area, which lies right at the foothills of Mussoorie. The master plan has clearly directed that no construction shall be undertaken of any building having more than two floors. However, in blatant disregard of such directions, approvals for the construction of multi-storied buildings are being allowed like peanuts,” the application says.
The plea attaches Google Earth Images that the green hill locks of the Doon Valley have now become “a pile of mud and barren land” from 2018-19 and the present day to show the pace of degradation.
