Loading…
On 24 August 2026 the Supreme Court barred all construction and development within 100 metres of the edge of Rajasthan's Jojari river.
Hazardous and polluting activity was barred within 500 metres on either side of the river's existing flood line or present flow path.
The restrictions run until the scientific determination and demarcation of the High Flood Line and ecological buffer zones is completed.
The order came in the suo motu matter In Re: 2 Million Lives At Risk, Contamination In Jojari River, Rajasthan, before Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta.
The Jojari is an 83-km tributary of the Luni, rising in Nagaur district and joining the Luni in Jodhpur district.
National Green Tribunal issues clean-up directions for the Jojari, Bandi and Luni rivers.
Supreme Court takes suo motu cognizance of contamination in the Jojari after a documentary on the river.
Court revives the NGT's 2022 directions and constitutes a High-Level Ecosystem Oversight Committee.
Court directs Rajasthan to constitute an Integrated Coordination Group under the Chief Secretary within seven days, and to set up an independent River Commission or River Rejuvenation Authority.
Interim ban on construction within 100 metres and on polluting activity within 500 metres, pending scientific demarcation.
The Jojari rises in the hills near Poondloo village in Nagaur district and flows north-east to south-west for about 83 km before joining the Luni near Khejalda Khurd in Jodhpur district. Its basin covers roughly 3,600 sq km of western Rajasthan. The Luni itself rises in the Aravalli range near Ajmer and drains south-west into the Rann of Kutch, and is the principal river of the arid western half of the state. More than 700 industrial units in the Boranada belt near Jodhpur have been identified as sources of effluent carrying sulphur, lead and cadmium into the Jojari.
The High Flood Line marks the level to which flood waters have historically risen along a stretch of river; it is the reference from which floodplain and no-construction zones are measured. An ecological buffer zone is the strip alongside a river kept free of built-up and polluting use so that the riverine ecosystem, groundwater recharge and natural drainage survive. Because neither had been scientifically demarcated for the Jojari, the court imposed flat 100-metre and 500-metre limits as an interim, measurable substitute until the survey is completed.
Simple Analogy: It is like cordoning off a fixed distance around a building whose exact boundary is disputed: the cordon is arbitrary but enforceable, and it holds only until the survey team draws the real line.
The right to life has been read by the Supreme Court to include the right to a clean and healthy environment, the enforceable basis for judicial intervention in pollution matters.
Directive Principle requiring the State to protect the environment, and the Fundamental Duty of every citizen to do the same; persuasive but not directly enforceable.
The statute under which State Pollution Control Boards regulate effluent discharge into rivers.
Umbrella law empowering the Centre to set standards and restrict industrial activity in designated areas.
Created the NGT, whose 2022 directions on the Jojari, Bandi and Luni the Supreme Court revived in November 2025.
GS Paper III > Environment and pollution; GS Paper II > Judiciary and environmental governance
General Awareness > Indian geography (rivers) and current affairs
General Awareness > Rivers of India and current events
Which river is known as the 'Sorrow of Bihar'?
Answer: Kosi
A proceeding initiated by a court on its own motion, without any party filing a petition.
The level up to which flood waters rise along a river stretch, used as the reference for floodplain regulation.
A basin-level statutory or executive body created to coordinate pollution control and ecological restoration of a river system.