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Forest minister kicks off 1200 acre eco-restoration project around Faridabad’s Badkal lake
The forest department’s Badkal eco-restoration project, in which over 2,25,000 native species of vegetation is proposed to be planted in Faridabad’s Aravalli forests, kicked off on Friday in a 1200-acre catchment area around Badkal lake.
The plantation drive inaugurated by Haryana forest minister Kanwar Pal will last for two monsoon seasons, with around 1,25,000 native saplings to be planted this year itself, department officials said.
Forest department officials said that the Badkal eco-restoration project is part of two such major efforts being planned in south Haryana. The other project is scheduled to kick-off over the weekend in Gurugram’s Kasan village, under the afforestation component of the Centre’s Jal Shakti Abhiyan .
“This is basically an exercise in compensatory afforestation to make up for green cover that has been diverted for non-forestry purposes in other parts of the state. The Badkal catchment area is an extremely important groundwater recharge zone, and so we have picked this place to carry out our most ambitious plantation drive in recent year,” said Raj Kumar, district forest officer, Faridabad.
The Badkal catchment area is currently notified under special sections four and five of the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900, which gives the land legal ‘forest’ status, with attendant protection under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. In recent years, rampant mining activity has degraded the local ecology, severely impacting groundwater levels and leaving the nearby Badkal lake bed bone dry for most of the year.
“This plantation drive will cover 31 villages in Faridabad, where local communities have been engaged in protecting the regions biodiversity. In this arid climate, the forest department will work with them to nurture these saplings and water supply will be provided. Going ahead, we will be restoring mining pits in the area and creating ponds and johads, so that the forest can be irrigated self-sufficiently,” said Pal.
In addition to Badkal in Faridabad and Kasan in Gurugram, there are least two other eco-restoration projects in the pipeline in the region — in Sakatpur near Gairatpur Bas in Kukrola village and around Damdama lake. “These are still in a planing stage, or have been held up due to minor issues. Plantation work in these regions has begun, but they are ambitious projects that require time,” said Jai Kumar, district forest officer, Gurugram.
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