Green ministry U-turn on Faridabad Aravalli plot leaves activists baffled

NGT was hearing a petition against the Haryana government for permitting the felling of more than 7,000 trees, including mesquite and axlewood (dhau), to make way for a group housing colony in Sarai Khwaja village in Faridabad.

More than a year after the environment ministry’s regional office concluded that a plot of land where more than 7,000 trees were felled for a group housing project being developed by Bharti Land Limited in Faridabad was a “deemed forest,” the environment ministry has informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Thursday that the area is in fact not a forest.

Aravali Biodiversity Park at MG road near Guru Dronacharya Metro station, in Gurugram (HT File)

The ministry’s U-turn has left activists in Haryana puzzled.

NGT was hearing a petition against the Haryana government for permitting the felling of more than 7,000 trees, including mesquite and axlewood (dhau), to make way for a group housing colony in Sarai Khwaja village in Faridabad.

One of the main contentions of the plea filed by Lt Col (Retd) Sarvadaman Singh Oberoi through advocate Ritwick Dutta was that Haryana government was in violation of the Supreme Court orders as per the TN Godavarman and Lafarge judgments pertaining to forest issues in 1996 and 2011 respectively. Those judgments said that irrespective of whether an area is a forest as per revenue records, it will be covered by the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, and cannot be used for any non-forestry activity without the Centre’s permission if it meets the dictionary meaning of the word forest.

On Thursday, the union environment ministry in an affidavit said: “It has been confirmed that this land is neither part of Aravali Plantation Project nor of Aravali notification…the ministry agrees with the averment of the state government that the land measuring 52.85 acres is not a “forest land” for the purpose of the Forest Conservation Act (1980).”

This submission contradicts the ministry’s own regional office’s August 2017 inquiry report which stated that the area in question has dense vegetation and is to be treated as a forest as per the dictionary meaning of the word.

“As per felling permission dated June 23, 2017, about 38,941 number of trees existed on the spot, indicating that 1846 number of trees existed per ha. The density was very high. As per vegetation status, the stand of Haryana forest department to treat the land as deemed forest seems to be justified,” the inquiry report concluded.

The environment ministry in Thursday’s affidavit, however, put the onus on Haryana. The ministry recommended that the definition of the Aravalis in the environment ministry’s 1992 notification (which was meant only for Gurugram in Haryana and Alwar in Rajasthan) also be used to delineate Aravalis in the entire National Capital Region. But this hasn’t been done by Haryana government yet.

“It is the responsibility of the state government (Haryana) to identify forests, Aravali range, and other features in the Natural Conservation Zone or NCZ (where development activity is restricted)...; the state government should immediately identify forest outside the recorded forest (area) as per the dictionary meaning,” the affidavit added.

Haryana is the state with the lowest forest cover in the country, at 3.59%.

The environment ministry’s stance is significant because the Haryana government has been dragging its feet on both finalising NCZ areas and has also recently proposed amending the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), a move which will open up more land for real estate development. The amendment involves excluding tracts of land included in the final development plans or town improvement plans from the ambit of PLPA. This development could affect the Aravalis, catchments of the Badhkal, Surajkund and Damadama lakes, and other forest areas in the state. The Haryana government is also yet to identify forests as per dictionary meaning of the word in the state.

The NGT on Thursday did not pass any orders based on the environment ministry affidavit but only observed that the affidavit may not have looked in detail at the regional office’s inquiry report. “The court today rightly observed that the environment ministry has discussed the stand of the state government but not discussed the findings of the enquiry report of its own regional office. The regional office report concludes that the area in question had around 39000 trees and stems, indicating a high density of trees, with moderate to dense forest cover,” said Chetan Agarwal, a Gurugram-based environmental activist.

The land in question belongs to Ajay Enterprises Limited, which has entered into an agreement with Bharti Land Limited for the development of the project. “The matter has been deferred to February 28 so I will not be able to comment on it,” said SK Sayal, CEO, Bharti Realty Limited, of which Bharti Land Limited is a part.

Sanjiv Ailawadi, lawyer representing Ajay Enterprises Limited said, “In our interactions, Haryana government and the Centre have maintained that this is not forest. If it was a forest we would have to apply for a forest clearance first before we could get an environmental clearance.”

What is the Sarai Khwaja land case?

• In May 2017, Bharti Land Limited sought permission from the Faridabad divisional forest officer to fell trees on a 52-acre plot it acquired for a group housing society project in Sarai Khwaja village in Faridabad.

• Sarai Khwaja is recorded as gair mumkin pahaar (uncultivable land), which is protected under the Aravali Notification, 1992.

• In 2015, Faridabad forest department disallowed felling of these trees because gair mumkin pahar’s conservation status was “yet to be decided.”

• Going against the forest department’s order, Haryana additional chief secretary issued a letter on June 22, 2017, directing the department to grant the developer approval.

• After around 7,000 mesquite and dhau trees were felled, activists approached NGT in June contending that the land is a forest.