Heavy construction belies ‘forest land’ tag of Aravallis

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, April 17

The Supreme Court had, in 2004, declared Surajkund and neighbouring areas in the Aravallis hills a forest area, but the land mafia had started exploiting the region for the commercial purpose several decades ago in view of no firm stand of successive governments in Haryana.

This has resulted in changing the skyline of the area with a large number of commercial and residential buildings coming up on the main Surajkund road and adjoining parts.

“Flexible rules and norms regarding the use of panchayat land coupled with no firm approach of the government towards preservation of forest have resulted in commercial plundering of thousands of acres in the district,” claimed a retired official of the Town and Country Planning Department, who did not want to named.

He said mining had damaged the ecology of the tail-end of Aravallis, but the authorities had failed to stop the activity even after imposing a ban.

“Hundreds of acres have changed hands for housing and commercial purposes over several decades. This was impossible without the connivance of the politicians and bureaucrats,” social activist Devender Singh Surjewala claimed, adding that the authorities concerned used exploit the loopholes in rules and the Punjab Village Common Land Act, 1961.

“If the state government had come out with a notification to make the area a protected or forest zone, thousands of acres could have been saved from the land sharks,” he said.

Sunil Bisla of Dayalpur village raised a related matter. “Though the state government had given its nod to a tourist complex in Surajkund, it paved the way for hundreds of buildings, farmhouses, marriage palaces and residential complexes in the area as the real estate mafia wanted to cash in on the topography of the region,” he said.

Ravi Singla, a former DTP of the Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, blamed the “lopsided” and “loose” policy of government. “The apex court had declared the Surajkund area as forest in 2004, but the state government is still to come out with any clarification.”