E-Paper
12 structures in Aravalli region in Faridabad razed
Gurugram: Carrying out a drive against encroachments on protected forest land in Ankhir village, the Faridabad district administration on Thursday razed at least
Gurugram: Carrying out a drive against encroachments on protected forest land in Ankhir village, the Faridabad district administration on Thursday razed at least 12 non-residential structures that were erected in violation of environmental norms, officials said.
An enforcement team comprising a duty magistrate, officials from the forest department and municipal corporation, and close to 50 police personnel oversaw the demolitions from 12pm to 5pm.
Prashant Atkan, the duty magistrate assigned to oversee Thursday’s demolitions, said, “We have only razed boundary walls of the encroachments. Internal structures have not been broken for safety reasons. We also faced some difficulty as a few people were trying to obstruct the process, and complaints against two individuals have been filed with the Faridabad police for action.”
Ankhir is one of the two villages in Faridabad district (the other being Mewla Maharajpur), where over 90% of village common land is notified under the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900. As per previous Supreme Court orders, this accords the land legal ‘forest’ status with protection under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
As per information provided by the forest department, there are at least 92 illegal structures, including resorts, banquet halls, sports academies and farmhouses, which have been built on PLPA-notified land in Ankhir, in violation of the FCA, 1980.
While such encroachments have been on the radar for close to a decade, the Supreme Court finally ordered concrete action against them in 2018. In September that year, the apex court had ordered the demolition of all buildings in Faridabad’s Kant Enclave constructed after August 18, 1992. Kant Enclave, a residential housing complex, was ruled to be illegally built on PLPA-notified forest land in the Surajkund area.
The apex court had also called for similar action against other encroachments in Faridabad’s Aravalli forest region, following which the then municipal commissioner of Faridabad announced an inventory of about 182 illegal structures. Subsequently, the forest department prepared a revised list of 66 such structures and served the owners show-cause notices last year.
Now, according to the forest department, the total number of illegal encroachments stands at 92. Department officials have not provided reasons as to why the number keeps fluctuating, despite being asked multiple times.
“I have been posted here recently, so I cannot comment on past developments. Speaking of current events, we successfully carried out a demolition drive today in which we razed between 10 to 12 illegal structures in Ankhir. We will continue to carry out demolitions of the other illegal structures in coming weeks,” Vikram Jit, range forest officer, Faridabad, said on Thursday.
