Green activists want government to sort out status of Aravalli foothills

Environmentalists are up in arms against the state government for postponing the categorisation of some parts of the Aravalli forest. They say the government has put the status of these areas, which are in the ‘yet to be decided category’, in the ‘awaiting finalisation’ state.

The green activists want the Aravalli gair mumkin pahar and foothill bhood areas included in the ‘status to be determined category’ of natural conservation zone (NCZ).

“Over 11,000 acres of land in Gurgaon and Faridabad are in the ‘yet to be decided’ NCZ category, and in Gurgaon district alone, the area in the ‘yet to be decided’ NCZ category is 10,000 acres. These areas have been deliberately left out of the NCZ because the government agencies have not decided the forest status,” Vivek Kamboj, a city-based environmentalist, said.

As per the NCR Regional Plan 2021 (published in 2005) Aravalli areas are part of NCZ. However, the civic agencies are lost in thought over the status, activists say.

“Over 99% of Aravalli areas are not included in the NCZ to satisfy the vested interests of the real estate mafia,” Amit Chaudhery, a naturalist, said.

Experts pointed out that the area is geographically important as it falls in a region that is facing large-scale groundwater depletion. Protecting the area is decisive for the survival of the Aravallis, they say.

Haryana has only 5% to 7% forest cover which is much less than the national average of 33%. But, if the government removes the Aravallis from the forest category, the state will be left with only 0.4% forest cover.

“It seems that an inadvertent error has been made whereby areas that are clearly part of the Aravallis - be it Aravalli hills (gair mumkin pahar), or aravalli foothills (bhood), have been kept in the ‘yet to be decided’ NCZ category, ignoring their Aravalli status. This is only because their forest status is awaiting finalisation. If this error is not corrected, then the beneficiaries will only be private real estate interests and the losers will be the public. We depends on these areas for critical ecological services such as groundwater recharge, biodiversity, nature-based recreation,” Chaudhery said.

The areas that meet uncultivated gair mumkin pahar or bhood criteria in satellite imagery should be included in NCZ even if the revenue record has been changed, green activists say.