Forest dept served legal notices for not sharing details

City-based environmentalists alleged that the proposed project site for the Global City project is protected under the Natural Conservation Zone status of the NCR Planning Board as well as the Aravalli Notification (1992), which prohibits development activities on Aravalli land.

The forest department has been served legal notices after the district forest officer allegedly declined to provide information on the Haryana government’s upcoming Global City project as requested by activists under the RTI Act.

The forest department has been served legal notices after the district forest officer allegedly declined to provide information on the Haryana government’s upcoming Global City project as requested by activists under the RTI Act.

City-based environmentalists alleged that the proposed project site for the Global City project — spread across at least 1,000 acres near Sector 36B — is protected under the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ) status of the NCR Planning Board as well as the Aravalli Notification (1992), which prohibits development activities on Aravalli land.

Citing that the project threatens a wildlife corridor extending to Sariska in Rajasthan, the environmentalist sought information from the state forest department to clarify these details. However, the forest department declined their request following which the notices were served.

The first notice was sent by legal activist Sarvadaman Oberoi on March 29, after the forest department did not provide the information in its RTI response a day earlier. The RTI application had been filed on March 19.

HT had March 27 reported the Global City project, being developed as part of the Delhi- Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), poses a threat to a known wildlife habitat and has run into a roadblock over NOCs from the forest and wildlife department. Wildlife department officials said the proposed project site is rife with wild animals, including jackals, sambar deer, porcupines, wild hares, jungle cats, monitor lizards and mongoose.

Activist Vaishali Rana Chandra, who filed the RTI application, said, “Google maps images between 2012 and 2016 show that the area is heavily forested by Sheesham trees, which are protected under the Forest Act and attract inclusion within the NCZ. The information we sought was to protect the already minimal forest cover of Haryana, which is just 3.5 percent of the country’s whole forest area. Why would this kind of public information be denied to us?”

District forest officer, Deepak Nanda, and conservator of forests, D Hembram, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Chandra’s RTI application sought clarity on whether the proposed project site is protected as Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ), under the Aravalli Notification (1992), or under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (1900). Chandra also asks whether there is any presence of water bodies or wildlife in the area, and whether there are plans for maintenance of green cover in the region as part of the Global City project. Lastly, the application requests for the areas land records and Global City’s budgetary provisions for wildlife conservation.

The forest department, however, responded by saying that the information sought does not fall under the definition of “information” as per the Section 2(f) of the RTI Act, which includes “any material in any form, including mails, opinions, advices, press releases, circulars, papers, reports, samples, modes, data material held in any electronic authority under any other law”.

Environmentalists called this a selective reading of the Act, and said it was being used in isolation to deny them the requested information. “The details sought come under the Rules of Allocation of Business in Haryana, and is squarely covered within the domain of the state forest department,” said Oberoi, adding that the department’s refusal to provide information is in contradiction with the spirit of the RTI Act.