Coca-Cola & Pepsi Harm India's Ecology

The matter attracted the attention of the judiciary when a three judge bench headed by the Chief Justice of India B.N. Kripal pointed out the incident while hearing a public interest litigation regarding the conservation of forests in the country. The Supreme Court (SC) expressed concern over such acts by companies and said that they should be "made to pay" for the damage they did to the ecology in order to promote their business. Disturbed over the damage done to rocks in forests, Justice Kripal said that it would be proper to take up the matter in court. A person named Harish Salve was appointed amicus curiae (friend of the court) by the SC to investigate the matter and take the necessary legal action.

After this, Salve, upon the court's direction, approached the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI⁵) to inspect the entire Rohtang-Manali road for advertisements painted on the rocks. Three days after the first news report was published, the court issued notices to the cola companies, charging them of violating the Forest Conservation Act 1980. A detailed report on the damage done by the companies (submitted by Salve) stated that "from the village Kothi to Rallah waterfalls to Beas Kund, a stretch of about 56 kilometers, advertisements have been plastered on the entire mountainside."⁶ Environmentalists pointed out that these mountainous facades were home to huge ecosystems that had developed over millions of years...