India, April 22 -- The Uttarakhand high court on Wednesday directed the state government to file a response to an urgency application pointing out a serious threat to the fragile ecology of the foothills between Dehradun and Mussoorie due to unchecked illegal constructions.

Reenu Paul, a Dehradun resident and former National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, faculty member, filed the application in a 2021 public interest litigation (PIL).

Advocate Abhijay Negi, who appeared for Paul before a bench of Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Subhash Upadhyay, called the stretch where the Dehradun plains meet the rising Mussoorie hills a critical ecological and conservation zone.

Negi said rampant building activity continues ...