Forest department demolishes 14 illegal structures on Aravalli land

The forest department on Friday carried out a demolition drive in Manesar village against 14 illegal constructions built on Aravalli land

The forest department on Friday carried out a demolition drive in Manesar village against 14 illegal constructions built on Aravalli land. This was done after directions from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in December, ordering that all such establishments built on forest land should be razed by January 31. Department officials said they will be submitting an action taken report before the court next week.

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Karam Bir Malik, forest range officer (Gurugram), who supervised Friday’s demolition drive, said, “Orders have been given by the court in two cases recently — one filed by plaintiff Sonia Ghosh and the other by Ram Avtar Yadav, the former sarpanch of the Manesar panchayat. In these cases, the NGT has been extremely clear that any illegal construction in Aravalli forests are to be removed. Since these 14 structures were found to be built on gair mumkin pahad land, which is legally a forest land, we had no choice but to carry out demolition.”

Officials confirmed that all 14 structures demolished on Friday were razed in totality. “Not just the boundary wall, but the entire structures have been pulled down. Some of the owners were also present at the site, but there was no interference or any other law and order issue,” said Afzal Khan, forest range officer, Sohna, who was also present at Friday’s demolition drive.

As per a recent forest department survey, there are at least 100 such farmhouses built illegally on Aravalli land in Gurugram, concentrated in areas like Gwal Pahari, Gairatpur Bas, Sohna and Manesar. Department officials, including district forest officer, Jai Kumar, confirmed that a slew of demolition drives are likely to take place in other parts of the district early next month.