Urban Adda 2025: Aravalli collapse will cripple NCR’s climate defences, warn experts

The warning is particularly relevant to Gurugram, where encroachments into the protected Aravalli range have intensified.

As bulldozers inch deeper into the Aravallis and unchecked urban sprawl carves away its ancient ridgelines, experts at Urban Adda 2025 issued a stark warning — the degradation of the Aravalli ecosystem could upend Delhi-NCR’s fight against air pollution, water scarcity, and urban heat.

Panelists during the Urban Adda 25 conclave organized by ICCT at Habitat Centre on Thursday, June 5, 2025. (RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO)

Speaking at a panel co-hosted by GuruJal and the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Delhi, environmentalists called the Aravallis not just a green buffer but the region’s last line of defence against environmental disaster. “Creeks and groundwater recharge zones are vanishing,” said Dr Ranjana Ray Chaudhuri of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). “This is not just biodiversity loss — it’s a suicide pact with climate.”

The warning is particularly relevant to Gurugram, where encroachments into the protected Aravalli range have intensified. Despite court orders and safeguards under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), large tracts of forest land have been carved up for illegal farmhouses, luxury villas and wedding venues in areas such as Raisina, Gwal Pahari, Sohna, Ghata, and Basai Mev.

Entire hillsides have been flattened to make way for private estates, often registered as agricultural land on paper. Activists said the scale of tree-felling and topsoil stripping has triggered aquifer collapse, desertification, and a dramatic loss of native wildlife.

Chetan Agarwal, forest analyst and senior fellow at CEDAR, said Delhi-NCR’s next Master Plan must integrate natural conservation zones (NCZs) with legal mandates. “We can’t afford another planning document that ignores the ecological spine of this region. The Aravallis are not empty land for exploitation — they’re living infrastructure essential for resilience.”

Nidhi Madan of Raahgiri Foundation echoed the urgency, calling the destruction “an irreversible ecological crime”. “Cities must adapt to the geography they occupy — not bulldoze it. What’s happening in the Aravallis is not growth, it is erasure,” she said.

The panel called for an empowered Aravalli Conservation Taskforce to crack down on illegal construction, monitor deforestation, and prosecute offenders. They also pushed for a joint conservation pact between Haryana and Rajasthan, backed by the Supreme Court’s central empowered committee (CEC), to conduct updated surveys and rehabilitate degraded zones.

As Delhi-NCR grapples with rising temperatures, erratic rainfall and worsening air quality, the message at Urban Adda was unequivocal: saving the Aravallis is no longer optional — it’s the survival strategy for the capital.