Delhi Ridge board yet to meet four months after reconstitution

Official said the two civil society members were yet to be appointed. “Thus, it will not be right to hold the first meeting without them. The process to appoint them will be completed soon.”

New Delhi: More than four months after it was reconstituted and given statutory powers, the Delhi Ridge Management Board (DRMB) has yet to hold a meeting amid delays in appointing officials and civil society members, officials aware of the matter said.

According to the MoEFCC notification, the new DRMB will be headed by the Delhi chief secretary. (HT archive)

The 13-member board, chaired by Delhi’s chief secretary, includes government officials and two civil society members whose appointments are pending.

The DRMB was constituted by the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEFCC) through a gazette notification dated December 1, 2025. It was also given statutory powers, as directed by the Supreme Court in November, to establish an entity responsible for issuing permissions related to the use of the Delhi Ridge, and for monitoring and acting against encroachments and other violations that threaten it. The new DRMB replaced the former Ridge Management Board, which was constituted in 1995 without statutory powers.

The previous RMB last met in July 2025 – after more than a year — and approved several projects and recommended them to the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC).

According to the MoEFCC notification, the new DRMB will be headed by the Delhi chief secretary. The board members include a representative of the director general of forests, special secretary (MoEFCC) not below the rank of inspector general of forests, a representative of the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs not below the rank of joint secretary, a Supreme Court-appointed representative of the CEC, and two Delhi government-appointed civil society members.

A senior government official said the two civil society members were yet to be appointed. “Thus, it will not be right to hold the first meeting without them. The process to appoint them will be completed soon.”

Queries sent by HT to members of the new DRMB, including the chief secretary, the DG (forest), and Delhi’s principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF), went unanswered.

On November 11, 2025, a bench of then Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran asked the MoEFCC “to constitute DRMB by issuing notification under Section 3(3) of the Environment Protection Act.”

Last month, the Delhi High Court expressed displeasure over the erstwhile Ridge Management Board‘s decision to park approximately ₹223 crore – meant for the protection and management of the Delhi Ridge – in fixed deposits instead of utilising the funds for conservation.

In its March 25 order, a bench of Justice Jasmeet Singh directed the Delhi government to convene an emergency meeting of the DRMB to formulate a plan for utilising available funds for preservation, upgradation, and conservation.

“A matter of grave concern in the present case is that the RMB, entrusted with the maintenance, upgradation, and proper management of the Ridge, deposited a sum of ₹223 crore in a fixed deposit for a period of one year, which prima facie indicates that the funds were not utilised for their intended purpose, namely the development of the Ridge,” the court had said.