Green activists slam govt's plan on remapping of Aravallis

Grugram: The reports over Haryana government considering to restrict the ranges of Aravallis forests till Gurugram district have not gone down well with the green activists. Many of them claimed that this was deliberate attempt by the authorities to end green belt of the region.

The reports have emerged at a time when the NGT asked the status of the land in Faridabad where thousands of trees were allowed to be cut for the real estate project. Expressing anger over the move, Meeenu Iyer said, "Disastrous move for all of the residents of national capital region. This will hugely impact the environment. Let us not be silent over this issue."

On Monday, the state government announced that the remapping of the natural conservation zone will again be undertaken. The statement from the government came at the national capital region planning board meeting in New Delhi on Monday. A major reason why Aravallis is exploited and continues to be plundered by the real estate sharks in the city is the lack of delineation which prevents Aravallis in Gurugram to be called as forest area.

Even as the matter of providing proper definition to Aravallis thus providing it the status of forested area remains pending in the Apex court, cases of real estate developments on the green cover area of Aravallis continue to be witnessed in the city. Not only is the lack of proper delineation but dual laws also prevent the forest conservators to protect the forest area of Aravallis.

Presently according to Indian forest act only four percent of the area of Aravallis in Gurugram is notified as forest. The Punjab land conservation act allows 25 percent of the green cover of Aravallis to be defined as forest area depending upon how dense the vegetation is. Lack of proper delineation has resulted in illegal mining, encroachment, diminishing green cover not only in the Faridabad but also in the Gurugram belt.