NGT steps in to save 230 Ghaziabad ponds, orders encroachments removed

Ghaziabad: The NGT has directed the District Wetland Committee to remove encroachments from water bodies and ponds in the district. This came after a recent report revealed that out of a total of 1,075 ponds in the district across four tehsils, 231 ponds face encroachments.
The NGT bench's order, comprising judicial member Arun Kumar Tyagi and expert member Afroz Ahmad, stated, "The proceedings for removal of the encroachments need to be expedited, and such a number of ponds from which encroachments are removed need to be rejuvenated and protected to prevent any further encroachment."

The committee has also been directed to take requisite remedial measures.
Meanwhile, the report submitted to the NGT showed that out of 1,075 ponds registered in the district with the revenue department, they should have been spread over an area of 524 hectares. However, 231 of them, having a total area of about 55 hectares, are either fully or partially encroached.
Modinagar, which has the highest number of ponds registered—579—has 120 encroached. Ghaziabad Sadar has 120 ponds, but 29 of them are encroached. The GMC area has 140 ponds, of which 44 are encroached. Loni has 139 ponds, but 38 are encroached.
In Ghaziabad's five blocks, except for Muradnagar, all of the city's blocks—Loni, Modinagar, Ghaziabad, and Bhojpur—are in the ‘over-exploited' category, which means that the extraction rate is more than the replenishment rate.
Shristhi Agarwal, assistant geophysicist and nodal officer of groundwater recharge, said, "On average, the groundwater level in the district has been registering a free fall at the rate of 10m per year. According to pre-monsoon 2024 data, the average groundwater level in Ghaziabad city has dipped to 34m, Rajapur 26m, Loni 27m, and Bhojpur 10m, and they all have been placed under the ‘over-exploited category'. Muradnagar's data for the same time period shows water level is 6m , and comes under the‘semi-critical' category."
According to the national compilation on dynamic groundwater resources of India 2023, Ghaziabad's groundwater extraction is 123% compared to its recharge. In contrast, the state average is 70%, making Ghaziabad's groundwater extraction rate the highest across the 75 districts. The data reveals that the annual extractable water resources in the district amount to 37,507 HAM (hectare-meter), while the groundwater extraction figures stand at 46,191 HAM.