Ghaziabad: 231 ponds under encroachment, NGT told

Five tehsils of the district have 1,075 ponds/water bodies and 231 of these stand encroached in one way or the other

Ghaziabad: A total of 231 ponds/water bodies of the 1,075 identified in Ghaziabad district are encroached, and 77 of the encroached are due to public utilities such as religious places, roads, electricity houses, railway houses, crematoriums, etc., the Ghaziabad district administration has informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in an affidavit.

Ghaziabad district magistrate (DM) Deepak Meena submitted the affidavit before the tribunal on April 28 following a petition filed by Himanshu Tyagi, a resident. (Sakib Ali/HT)

Ghaziabad district magistrate (DM) Deepak Meena submitted the affidavit before the tribunal on April 28 following a petition filed by Himanshu Tyagi, a resident. He had contended that several water bodies in Muradnagar were encroached, and the area had reduced; besides, he also raised an issue of contamination of water bodies.

The NGT thereafter set up a joint committee, to be headed by the Ghaziabad DM as nodal officer for coordination and compliance.

The submitted affidavit, meanwhile, states that five tehsils of the district have 1,075 ponds/water bodies spread over an area of 525.1862 hectares, and 231 of these, having an area of 57.04212 hectares, stand encroached in one way or the other.

Of these total ponds/water bodies, 293 are located in urban areas and 782 in rural areas of Ghaziabad, it adds.

In its earlier order on September 13, 2024, regarding Tyagi’s petition, the NGT decided to extend the scope of the joint committee to the entire district.

“We also find the existence of water bodies and their maintenance of utmost importance for ecology, and therefore it would be appropriate to find out the status of water bodies in the entire district of Ghaziabad instead of confining only for the area of Nagar Palika Parishad, Muradnagar. Hence, we proceed to consider the issue in respect of the entire district of Ghaziabad,” the tribunal said in its order.

The affidavit further states about the presence of 217; 579; 139; and 140 (ponds/water bodies) in four tehsils/blocks of Ghaziabad Sadar, Modinagar, Loni, and the Ghaziabad municipal corporation, respectively. Of these, 29; 120; 18; and 44 ponds/water bodies, respectively, face encroachment.

“We will soon remove temporary encroachment and free up water bodies/ponds on an immediate basis, while we will also act on encroachment that is in the form of permanent constructions. In case, there are ongoing cases, we will expedite and make efforts to get the cases disposed of at the earliest. In case, we find some new encroachment, etc., we will register cases,” said the DM.

Environmentalists said despite different directions by the NGT and courts to free up encroachment and preservation of water bodies, the encroachment of ponds/water bodies still persists. “There is hardly any action on the ground. Further, the issue of contamination is also vital as it affects groundwater. The tribunal had given substantial directions in connection with my petition filed in 2020 for ponds. However, there is hardly any implementation, and I will move into execution,” said Sushil Raghav, a city-based environmentalist.

On March 17, 2021, the tribunal disposed of Raghav’s petition. The final order stated that the then DM, Ghaziabad, filed a report dated October 28, 2020, to the effect that a large number of water bodies were encroached.

“Percentage of encroached water bodies is around 72.90% (183 water bodies). Action has been initiated under Section 67 of the UP Revenue Code, 2006. Only 49 out of 261 water bodies are free from encroachment in Ghaziabad District,” the tribunal mentioned in its March 17, 2021 order.

The tribunal then directed that the UP chief secretary “may take further action and ensure compliance in the matter of removing encroachments and taking other steps for restoration of water bodies by periodically holding meetings with the DM for monitoring.”