New Delhi, March 7: The Supreme Court has stepped in to protect Tagore?s Santiniketan.

A bench of Justices N. Santosh Hegde and S.B. Sinha has said town planning in the poet?s abode should be done keeping in mind that there is ?no destruction of the ideals?. But construction already under way cannot be stopped.

The court said the ?land use and future planning of Santiniketan? must be done in a way that the changes do not render the place ?beyond the recognition of the poet?. Provisions of the Visva-Bharati University Act ? under which the Centre had declared it a university of national importance ? are also not to be flouted.

The directives came after the judges heard a public interest litigation moved by some eminent residents of Santiniketan against indiscriminate construction for residential and commercial purposes. The flourish, they contended, was in disregard of pollution-control norms and endangering the purpose, tradition and objective with which Visva-Bharati was founded.

The judges said ?we do not intend to stop construction activities...being carried out?.

The petitioners said that in the Khoai area, the land created naturally by running rainwater over thousands of years was under threat from constructions. ?If destroyed, it cannot be restored even with the help of science and, thus, requires preservation.?

The judges said the West Bengal Pollution Control Board, a statutory body, had issued directions for the preservation and conservation for cultural, historical, archaeological, environmental and ecological purposes. The directions are binding on the state as well as private builders. ?If any construction is carried on the Khoai, the same indisputably will destroy its unique natural and cultural heritage and all constructional activities must abide by the directions of the pollution control board,? the apex court said.