Gurugram: Around 8,000 hectares of Aravalis in Faridabad are not part of the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ), the Haryana Government has shown.
This is likely to open the way for construction in the green area, a problem that has caused several court petitions by environmental activists.
In a letter for all districts, the main secretary (City and state planning) AK Singh has said that the protected arabavalis must be defined according to the 1992 notice by the center, which says that “specific fields” forests are limited to Gurugram in Haryana and Alwar in Rajasthan.
“It has been noted that in the income record, there is no term, ‘Aravalli’, more precisely there is only mentioning ‘gair Mumkin Pahah’.
Therefore, several districts have identified the area recorded as ‘Gair Mumkin Pahar’, in the income record, at Under the NCZ taking into account the same thing with ‘Aravalli’ and simultaneously highlighting the same thing for the decision by the NCZ Committee, “the letter said.
Furthermore, “on this issue, this concern was withdrawn before the minutes of the meeting held under the leadership of the Head Secretary, Haryana in March 2017, where over this issue regarding the identification of Aravalli, the following were recorded: ‘The Haryana Government can consider this notification in the old district of Gurugram Only and the area specified in the 07.05.1992 notification can be considered as aravalli.
The definition of Aravalli may not be extended to other Haryana sub-regions that are not defined in aravalli notifications at 07.05.1992 unless the same thing is done by MOEF & CC through similar notifications .
So only ‘certain areas’ in the old district of the Gurugram at 07.05.1992 can be part of the ‘Confirmed NCZ’.
“Letter by Singh is based on the” Truthing Groundhing “exercises that began in 2014 to identify areas that have been abandoned from NCZ and those who included accidentally.
Environmental activists filed objections to the state government’s decision.
“Instead of protecting Aravalis, the Haryana government protects the interests of real estate developers.
This comes at the expense of wildlife and its habitat, air quality, and refill of groundwater.
The government tries to undermine the NCR planning council decision (which says Aravalis spread throughout the region).
This is an angry effort to open Aravalis for real estate, “said LT Col Sarvadaman Singh Oberoi (retirees), an activist.
In a meeting with the state government in 2016, the NCR Planning Council also referred to the 1992 Aravalis Center notice in Gurugram and Alwar.
The board then said that the delineation center could be expanded in the “entire NCR region”.
The command has surprised many activists.
They showed that some of the assessment of the Supreme Court about mining in Faridabad was based on the premise that the activity was prohibited on the Aravali Hill.
In a recent verdict, The Apex Court has also ordered the demolition of 10,000 homes that have emerged illegally in Khori Village on the Bukit Aravali Faridabad.
“There are so many documents that show that Aravalis also exists in other districts.
There is a Gazette District Plan, the Ministry of Forestry’s work report, mining department documents and the most important, the Supreme Court assessment that prohibits mining.
How the Haryana Government can question the documents Alone? “Asked Rp.
Balwan, a former Gurugram forest conservator.
The Haryana government has spent years negotiating on the definition of “forest”.
In December 2016, it was agreed upon with the NCR planning board on forest problems.
In 2017, the Board had referred to a December 2016 meeting with the government and said that “certain areas (ie the category of Gair Mumkin Pahah or Gair Mumkin Rada or Gair Mumkin Behed or Banjad Beed or Rundh) as given in the MOEF notification on 07.05.1992 It must be included when identifying / replacing Aravalli throughout the NCR, by participating countries “.
A senior official in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said the central notice was based on a certain assessment of the Supreme Court regarding mining activities.
He added that because they could not achieve a specific definition of Aravalis in the previous meeting, they had used the 1992 notice.
New direction of the government, officials showed, thus calculating decisions achieved at the 2016 meeting between the Government Haryana and the NCR Planning Board.