Introduction The field of environment law has experienced tremendous growth in the recent past, and the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India have decided important cases in setting out the jurisprudence in the area. Any new development in law calls for innovation in the application of existing law by the courts and the courts in India have not been far behind. To give teeth to the environmental protection mechanism, Indian courts have extended criminal sanctions, inter alia, through the application of the principle of ‘public nuisance’.1 This paper will seek to focus on the concept of public nuisance and its utilization by the courts in the protection of the environment.  Public Nuisance: A Conceptual Understanding Nuisance is essentially of two types- private nuisance and public nuisance. Priva ....