Madras High Court to review NGT’s ban on construction within 1 km of Pallikaranai swamps on August 3
The CMDA told the court that it had received numerous complaints regarding planning permission applications that were not processed due to the NGT ban. | Photo credit: PICHUMANI K
The Madras High Court on Wednesday (July 15, 2026) decided to take up a case challenging the authority of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to impose a blanket ban on construction within one kilometer of the boundaries of Pallikaranai Swamp, a Ramsar site, for final hearing on August 3, 2026.
Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G. Arul Murugan accepted the plea of senior counsel PS Raman, representing CREDAI-Chennai Chapter, for an early hearing of the case as it involved a ban on construction on 3,474 hectares (8,584.44 acres) in Chennai city.
He said the NGT order affected thousands of landowners in Puzhuthivakkam, Madipakkam, S. Kolathur, Pallikaranai, Jalladianpet, Perumbakkam, Arasankalani, Semmancheri, Sholinganallur, Karapakkam, Injambakkam, Okkiyam, Seevaramungadi, Pere.
Additional Advocate General PV Balasubramaniam, representing the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA), also told the court that he had received numerous complaints regarding building plan permission applications that were not processed due to the September 24, 2025 NGT order.
In its additional counter-affidavit, the CMDA said ground verification using Google imagery and satellite images showed that 2,924 hectares (7,225 acres) of the 3,474 hectares is already a densely populated area where several thousand buildings have already been built.
Buildings have been constructed on 84.2% of the area within one kilometer radius, the CMDA said, with much of this construction taking place in these locations much before the 1,247.54 hectare Pallikaranai Wetland was declared a Ramsar site in 2022.
The court was told that 47 planning permissions are pending with the CMDA and several others are pending with the Greater Chennai Corporation and other civic bodies. The CMDA said the blanket ban, even before the completion of the “zone of influence” around the swamps, had caused serious hardship to landowners.
“Consideration of 1 km as ‘zone of influence’ without completion of due legal procedures may not be correct,” the CMDA said, relying on the Tamil Nadu State Wetland Authority’s (TNSWA) stand that the ‘zone of influence’ can be determined only after completion of an Integrated Management Plan (IMP).
TNSWA, on its part, told the court that determining the “zone of influence” and preparing the IMP are complex legal exercises that take time. “Final delineation may depend on the outcome of scientific studies, hydrologic assessments, field validation and other relevant environmental factors and cannot be predetermined at this stage,” the agency said in its status report.
Referring to the CMDA and TNSWA submissions, Mr. Raman, assisted by P. Veena Suresh, said that CREDAI-Chennai was not against the conservation of 1,247.54 hectares of Pallikaranai wetlands, but was only concerned about the arbitrary ban on construction imposed within one kilometer of the wetlands.
He argued that such a ban could not be imposed even before the “zone of influence” was finally determined, which could be anything between zero kilometers and one kilometer in various places depending on scientific studies and not necessarily a fixed one kilometer area around the marshes.
Published – 15 Jul 2026 19:46 IST