Delhi Ridge encroached or not marked: Supreme Court flags ‘shocking state of affairs’

The Supreme Court on Thursday found that the management of Delhi’s Ridge area reflected a “shocking state of affairs”, and sought responses from the Centre and the Delhi government on a report that showed that a chunk of the 7,784 hectares of Ridge land in the Capital were either diverted, under encroachment, or out of the ambit of protection because it was not notified as a reserve forest.

Pointing out that the Ridge serves as a green lung for the people of a city that is already battling bad air and pollution, a bench of justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said: “The report depicts a very shocking state of affairs.”

Report by central empowered committee

The court was examining a report submitted by the central empowered committee (CEC), a statutory authority of experts assisting the court on forest and environment issues, filed in the top court on Wednesday. “It is a very serious issue that 4% of the ridge forest has been diverted,” the bench said after being taken through the contents of the report by advocate K Parmeshwar, who is assisting the bench as amicus curiae in a batch of cases seeking protection of forests and wildlife.

“It is also shocking to note that though notification was issued in 1984 to classify 7,784 hectares as the total ridge forest area, the final notification under Section 20 of Indian Forest Act (notifying the land as reserved forest) only covers an area of 103.48 hectares, roughly 1.33% of the total ridge forest area,” the bench said. This 103 hectares includes 14.18 hectares in Chattarpur and 89.30 hectares in Rangpuri.

Posting the matter to July, the court order said, “We direct the Union of India, the Delhi government, and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to file responses to the report on or prior to July 24.”

The CEC report, signed by member secretary G Banumathi, said, “The management of Ridge land does not seem to be up to the mark -- 5% is under encroachment, the rate of diversion is on rise and 4% has been diverted. Above all, in last 30 years since the date of Section 4 notification (in May 1984), only 1.33% has so far been notified under Section 20 of Indian Forest Act, 1927.”

Parmeshwar told the court that the report flagged a serious concern plaguing the Ridge area spread across four zones of the city -- central, northern, southern and south-central. He said that the root cause for diversion and encroachment of ridge forests was the lack of notification identifying the Ridge land as reserved forest.

The CEC report showed the diversion of ridge land for “non-forestry purposes” was on the rise, and little was being done to prevent it. The extent of encroachments in Delhi ridge is available only for the area under the ownership of Delhi’s forest department, roughly 6,626 hectares. “From 2015 onwards, it (encroachment) stands at 301.85 hectares which is around 4% of the total ridge area,” the report said.

Slow removal of encroachments

In last five years, the encroachment was 183.88 ha as compared to 117.97 ha in the previous five-year period, CEC noted, raising further concern that the “speed of removal of encroachments is also quite slow with only 91 ha of encroachment removed in 5 years”.

“These are official figures and actual encroachment can be much more, and can be found out only after the entire boundary of Delhi ridge is secured by geo-tagged pillars,” the expert body said while adding that “multiplicity of judicial intervention” on the issue of protecting the ridge pending in the top court, Delhi high court and national green tribunal (NGT) “ seems to have diluted the seriousness of the matter”.

The Ridge is the tail end of the Aravalli Hills, extending from Gujarat, through Rajasthan and Haryana, and ending in Delhi. It is home to a variety of flora and fauna, and plays a crucial role in cutting down effects of pollution.

The original notification for the ridge issued in 1994 covered an area of 7,777 hectares this was extended in 1996 to include the Nanakpura Ridge under section 4 of Forest Act, taking the total notified ridge reserve forest space to 7,784 hectares. The Ridge is under ownership of multiple agencies with a substantial portion with DDA.

DDA did not respond to requests for comment.

The forest department, in a submission to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in April, had stated that they have cleared 91.1 hectares of encroachments so far. However, it had said that it did not have any data on encroachments in the remaining areas of the Ridge.

When contacted, a senior forest department official said the 7,784 hectares of the Ridge is legally protected under section 4. “We are removing encroachments swiftly, and all disputes pending are being settled by the forest settlement officer (FSO). Any land that is freed up is taken by us and is secured by boundary walls. The area is then revived using native plantation. The final notification can only be done once all encroachments are removed, but that does not mean the ridge is not protected in Delhi at present,” said the official.

Notification process

Meanwhile, a retired Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, who has held a senior post in the forest department, said any Ridge is notified in multiple stages, beginning with the first step being the notification under section 4, which declares a piece of land as a reserved forest.

“Section 4 is the start of the notification process, and is simply the declaration of any proprietary land as a declared forest. Under this, the boundary is specified. This was done in 1994 itself, by the then development department,” the retired officer said, on condition of anonymity.

The retired officer said that following this step, a FSO has to be appointed, who then has to ensure all land disputes within the notified forest land are solved, and the entire land is transferred to the forest department, before the final notification under section 20 can be done. “Back then (in 1994), Delhi had one FSO, but at present, there are three, and the process to remove encroachments and transfer land is still going on. There are multiple cases also going on in different courts and until these disputes are settled, the final notification cannot take place,” said the retired officer.