Will restore Aravali land cleared for farmhouses: Foresters

GURGAON: After TOI reported last week that 35 acres of Aravali forest area had been cleared for construction of farmhouses off the Golf Course Extension Road, the forest department on Wednesday sent notices to more than a dozen people and said it will restore the area within a week.
The area in Behrampur village comes under the Aravali Plantation project, which gives it protection under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Chopping down trees and construction is illegal on land notified under FCA.
Officials said on Wednesday they have issued a dozen notices. The department will take down the encroachments within a week and start a plantation drive during the monsoon to restore the lost forest cover.
"We have made a list and served notices to people who have encroached on the area. We will also carry out a demolition drive and complete it within a week," said Rajeev Tajyan, divisional forest officer, Gurgaon.
On May 13, TOI had reported that construction was ongoing in compounds that were fenced off with concrete walls. Men were seen carrying bricks, and there were tyre-tracks of earth-moving machines nearby.
Satellite imagery also showed that the 35-acre area, which was covered in green until September 2017, had been flattened into walled-off compounds by December 2022.
Environmentalists reiterated that the Aravalis need to be monitored continuously because of the land on which a large portion of the hills stand is owned by panchayats and individuals even though there are restrictions on construction and felling of trees.
"How are such structures coming up in the Aravalis? These areas are key wildlife habitat and groundwater recharge areas. Farmhouses, boundary walls, cricket field and other non-forest activities are being carried out in a protected area just a kilometre from the Golf Course Extension Road," asked Lt Col.(retd) Sarvadaman Singh Oberoi, a city-based activist.
Former forest conservator of Gurgaon, RP Balwan, said Haryana needs a strong administrative body to take strict action against encroachments.
"The government is failing to protect the Aravalis even though the state has such low forest cover. There are so many laws and documents to protect the Aravalis, but implementation is lacking. Drone surveillance needs to be carried out frequently," Balwan said.
In 2016, the forest department had said it will set up 52 security outposts to protect 1 lakh hectares of the Aravalis in south Haryana. The department also recommended that an "Aravali protection task force" be formed and recommended that a typical checkpost have at least four guards assigned to it for round-the-clock vigilance. The project never saw the light of day.
The Aravali Plantation project, carried out in the 90s to revive around 33,000 hectares in six districts of Haryana, was notified under FCA after the Supreme Court ordered to do so in a 2004 ruling. Haryana has just around 3.6% of its total categorised as forests - among the lowest for any state in India.