Reliance Comm fined for digging in national park

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court fined Reliance Communications Ltd. 10 million rupees on Thursday after its subsidiary laid fibre optic cables inside a national park without permission.

Reliance Telecom Ltd., which is now owned by Reliance Communications, buried 22 km of high-speed data cables inside Madhav National Park, a deer-speckled expanse of forested hills and flat grasslands in Madhya Pradesh.

The government usually bans development of any kind inside national parks. In this case, Reliance Telecom failed to seek an exception from the environment ministry before it began digging in 2001, the court said.

Reliance Communications acquired the unit after a demerger with petrochemicals and refining giant Reliance Industries Ltd. as part of a family settlement between the two Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil.

A Reliance Communications spokesman said the company would not comment on the case.

The fine will be paid into a national fund to restore India's woodlands.