E-Paper
70% of Southern Ridge cleared of encroachments
Since 2015, the revenue and the forest departments have been working on creating updated maps of the Southern Ridge, along with marking the geo-coordinates on the ground.
Nearly 4,500 hectares or around 70% percent of the total area of the Southern Ridge, which spans 6,210 hectares, has been made free of encroachments with the area now fully notified as a forest under Section 4 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927, said state forest officials aware of the matter.
While another 1,000 hectares are slated to be notified as a forest under phase 2, after pending court cases wrap up, the state forest department is now focusing on freeing another 350 hectares of the Southern Ridge, which is still under encroachment mostly in the densely populated areas.
Officials said anti-encroachment drives have been on in discreetly since 2018, after a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order.
Since 2015, the revenue and the forest departments have been working on creating updated maps of the Southern Ridge, along with marking the geo-coordinates on the ground. The drives began after the mapping process was completed in 2017.
While encroachments on over 300 hectares have been removed since then, including freeing 61 hectares as recently between January and April this year, the forest department is now awaiting assistance from the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to rehabilitate people from denser pockets such as Chattarpur, Neb Sarai, Tughlakabad, Rajokri, Ghitorni and Mahipalpur so that the drives can be facilitated.
“We had written to DUSIB last year and a meeting is to be held over the matter this month. We have asked them to draw a list of people eligible for rehabilitation, based on which we can at least begin demolishing structures of those who do not merit rehabilitation,” said a senior forest official, who said that based on the area from where encroachments will be removed, police protection and the special task force under the district magistrate (south) will be called in.
Several farmhouses have come under the forest department’s scanner. “Areas such as Chattarpur, Ayanagar and Dera Mandi have a number of farmhouses, which have been found to be allegedly encroaching on forest land. Once DUSIB gives the green light, we can go ahead with the drive,” said the official adding that removing multi-storey buildings is likely to take several hundred policepersons while demolishing farmhouses will be a swifter process.
The anti-encroachment drives were mostly focused on 19 villages adjacent to the Southern Ridge, which includes Tughlakabad, Rajpur Khurd, Chattarpur, Dera Mandi, Jaunapur, Ayanagar, Satbari, Saidulajab, Maidangarhi, Neb Sarai, Asola, Bhati, Rangpuri, Sahurpur, Devli, Rajokri, Ghitorni, Mahipalpur and Pul Pehladpur.
Forest officials said so far, the anti-encroachment drives mostly focused on temporary structures and smaller buildings, which did not require considerable force.
The area freed from encroachments has been notified only recently under the Indian Forest Act, giving strict legal protection. “The areas made free of encroachment have legal protection and the geo-coordinates are also mapped. If there are any future encroachments, it will be easier to remove them,” said the official.
According to a document on the minutes of the meeting held by an oversight committee dated February 24, 2022, anti-encroachment drives have been recently undertaken in Asola (10.99 hectares), Rangpuri (5.47 hectares), Rajokri (3.75 hectares), Dera Mandi (3.38 hectares) and Tughlakabad (2.14 hectares). However, the drives in other pockets have slowed down, owing to 19 cases pending in court and due to problems related to rehabilitation.
