Over 200 ponds encroached on in Noida; govt facilities built over some: Report

According to the report submitted by district magistrate Suhas LY, there are at least two ponds that were levelled and the land allotted by the Noida authority for setting up of factories

A report submitted by the Gautam Budh Nagar district magistrate to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday said of the 1,018 ponds in the district, 217 are encroached upon -- in some instances, by the government authorities themselves and allotted for setting up factories and public utilities.

As per the report submitted by the DM, there are 67 ponds under the Noida authority, of which 54 or 81% are encroached upon. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

According to the report submitted by district magistrate Suhas LY, there are at least two ponds that were levelled and the land allotted by the Noida authority for setting up of factories. Similarly, Noida authority also allotted pond land to real estate developers as well as for public services such as parks, railway lines, community centres and old settlements.

As per the report submitted by the DM, there are 67 ponds under the Noida authority, of which 54 or 81% are encroached upon.

In a separate short response submitted by Noida authority to the NGT on Thursday, it said there are 67 ponds under its jurisdiction and they are classified under four categories — 13 ponds that are fully or partially existing, eight ponds on which public utility or development work has been done, six ponds that have been allotted for factories, group housing or industrial projects and 40 ponds on which dense population existed even before it came under the Noida authority in December 2020.

The Noida authority informed the court that in lieu of ponds on which public facilities have been developed, water bodies would be developed on alternative places with 25% additional land -- from the original size of the pond that was used for other purposes.

“... keeping in view the significance and impact of water bodies to the environment, begs to provide alternate water bodies/ponds ...with the stipulation that 25% larger alternate water bodies be developed elsewhere for and in place of the existing water bodies. The authority would further seek three months’ time to file a time schedule for completing the said process,” officer on special duty Prasun Dwivedi told the tribunal.

The authority response mentions that most structures built over encroached ponds have been there for years as the allotments were done between 1978 and 2007.

“The authorities assume that it is fine to tamper with the natural environment and build over ponds in the name of development and not much can be done as these allotments are years old. We don’t realise that most of the environmental disasters we are facing now is because of such reckless decisions,” said Abhisht Kusum Gupta, the petitioner in the case.

As per reports submitted by the DM regarding the other authorities, there are 281 ponds under the Greater Noida authority, of which 58 are encroached upon. Of the 277 ponds under the Yamuna Expressway Authority (Yeida), 29 are encroached upon. There are 393 other ponds under the gram panchayat and nagar nikam, of which 62 are encroached upon.

The Gautam Budh Nagar administration also stated that so far, encroachments from 20 ponds have been removed. Additionally, 75 ”amrit sarovars” or ponds are being made under a Union government scheme. This includes 37 ponds in rural areas and 38 in urban areas, and work has already begun on 60 ponds while 24 are complete.

“The three development authorities have been asked to file a case in their respective areas regarding the illegally encroached ponds under the relevant sections of the UP Revenue Code. In areas where cases have been filed, the authorities have been directed to take necessary action to get the encroachments removed,” said the report submitted by Suhas LY.

On Thursday, NGT also ordered the formation of a task force at the district level, including the three authorities and the DM, to remove encroachments from ponds.