Citing reports of untreated industrial discharge, blackened water and fish deaths, the Chhattisgarh High Court pulled up the state for failing to curb pollution in the Shivnath and Kharun rivers, saying the situation reflected non-compliance with its earlier directions. Hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on environmental pollution, Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha said: “The present material placed before the Court depicts a deeply disturbing and regressive state of affairs”. The PIL — filed in 2024 based on a news item — cited three more reports published in May this year on pollution in the Shivnath and Kharun rivers and discharge of black smoke and polluted water from a factory in Bilaspur. On the Shivnath river, the HC, citing a report, said many fish were dying due to untreated discharge from a factory. “This spirit-contaminated water is flowing into the Shivnath River through a drain. Because of this, the once blue looking Shivnath river has turned completely black.…