Notice to 16 farmhouses in Raisina area for encroaching Aravalis

GURUGRAM: The district forest department has issued showcause notices to 16 farmhouse owners in the Raisina area of the Aravalis for illegal construction.
A senior official with the forest department in Sohna said, “Many areas have been robbed of their green cover in the areas protected under sections 4 & 5 of PLPA (Punjab Land Preservation Act) and the Aravali notification. While many farmhouse owners are building boundary walls around their plots, some have been carrying out construction inside the plots. We have sent showcause notices to them, asking if they have any permission to carry out construction in the area.”

According to the notice, the forest department may demolish the constructions if the department doesn’t get any response within 15 days. “We will carry out a demolition drive if the farmhouse owners fail to give required response within 15 days,” the official said.

Any kind of non-forest activity is prohibited in land falling under sections 4 & 5 of Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA) and the Aravali notification.

Under sections 3(1) and 3(2)(v) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and Section 5(3)(d) of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, cutting of trees and construction is prohibited in the areas covered by the Aravali notification.

According to experts, any kind of construction damages the natural land pattern in the Aravalis. “Any kind of construction leads to alteration of the natural land pattern and disturbs the natural drainage and the entire ecosystem of the Aravalis. There is an urgent need to give the status of ‘forest’ to the entire Aravalis region in NCR. Otherwise, mindless cutting of trees and destruction of the ecosystem will continue,” said Vivek Kamboj from Haryali, an environmentalist NGO.

In January, the forest department demolished an illegal construction carried out by a farmhouse owner in a 30-acre plot in the Raisina area. In January last year, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) carried out an inspection at a farmhouse after TOI reported that over 200 trees were felled for illegal construction in the area.