The court had ordered that the number of tourists in the meadows be limited to 200. It also banned commercial grazing of cattle in the alpine and sub-alpine meadows. (Express Photo by Jay Mazoomdaar/Representational) The court had ordered that the number of tourists in the meadows be limited to 200. It also banned commercial grazing of cattle in the alpine and sub-alpine meadows. (Express Photo by Jay Mazoomdaar/Representational)

A day after the Uttarakhand High Court ordered the removal of all permanent structures from alpine meadows in the state, the state government said it might approach the Supreme Court against the HC order. On Tuesday, the Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Lok Pal Singh had ordered the state government to “remove all the permanent structures from the alpine meadows/sub-alpine meadows/Bugyals in the state of Uttarakhand including Aali-Bedini-Bagzi Bugyals within a period of three months”.

The court had ordered that the number of tourists in the meadows be limited to 200. It also banned commercial grazing of cattle in the alpine and sub-alpine meadows.

However, meadows across the state are tourist attractions. Auli, for instance, which lies in the state’s Chamoli district, is one such meadow which has been developed into an international skiing destination and fetches over Rs 4 crore annually to the state government. Removing all permanent structures from a place like Auli, on which up to Rs 200 crore have been invested, could put the state’s tourism-based earnings on the backfoot.

On Wednesday, state forest minister Harak Singh Rawat said, “We will study the court order and if we find that it will affect tourism-based earnings, then we will approach the Supreme Court to get a stay on the order.”

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