Forest department survey finds 225 acres of Aravallis in Gurugram encroached

Farmhouses and residential colonies came up illegally over 225 acres of the Aravallis in Gurugram, according to a recent survey by the district forest department, said officials aware of the matter

Farmhouses and residential colonies came up illegally over 225 acres of the Aravallis in Gurugram, according to a recent survey by the district forest department, said officials aware of the matter. The encroachments were detected in Sohna, Gwal Pahari, Raisina areas of the district, they added.

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Gurugram divisional forest officer Rajeev Tejyan said that the department conducted a ground survey over the last one month.

“In it, we identified encroachments over 225 acres of the Aravallis. We are still waiting for reports of a drone survey conducted by a private agency after which we will be able to know more about minor pockets of encroached forest land. That might push the total encroached area to 250 acres,” said Tejyan, adding that that report will likely be submitted to the department by Monday.

The structures were constructed over decades, said the official.

According to the records of the forest department, 16,803 acres in Gurugram district fall under the Aravallis, which is protected under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA). According to directives from the Supreme Court, PLPA land will have the protection as stated under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, which states that “no state government or other authority shall make, except with the prior approval of the central government, any order directing that any forest land or any portion thereof may be used for any non-forest purpose.”

The forest department said it sent notices to owners of over 500 illegal structures in the last one and half months, of which around 50 that covered 36 acres were demolished since last week.

“In the past few days, demolition drives were conducted in Ghata, Gwal Pahari, Kadipur and Basai. This follows orders of the Supreme Court that demanded little toleration of such encroachment. The demolition drive will continue for a few more days,” said Tejyan.

In July, the Supreme Court, while hearing a case about the demolition of Khori village in Faridabad, observed that “the direction to remove all unauthorised structures standing on the forest land applies to all such structures without any exception.” After this, the forest department began razin illegal structures, including farmhouses, banquet halls and institutes on Aravalli land.