NCR body seeks Haryana’s Aravallis protection status report from state

The NCZ status is a protection accorded to the state’s Aravallis as per the NCRPB’s Regional Plan 2021. The Aravallis occupy about 1 lakh hectares in Haryana. Of these, about 60,000 hectares have been accorded the NCZ status, while 12,000 were slotted under the ‘NCZ status yet to be decided’ in 2014.

At a meeting convened last week by the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB), district officials in Haryana’s forest and town and country planning departments were ordered to submit their ground-truthing reports, delineating areas to be included in the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ), by the end of the month.

An area protected under the Natural Conservation Zone can have no more than 0.5% construction activity. (HT File Photo)

The town and country planning department had earlier committed to finishing the exercise, which has been delayed by more than four years, by January 31.

D Hembram, conservator of forests (south Haryana), said the meeting was called for instructing district-level officials to complete the task at the earliest, and that divisional forest officers would work with town planners to complete the exercise.

MCG senior town planner Sudhir Chauhan said, “We have begun the process of delineating NCZ land and will be presenting the report before NCRPB soon.”

The NCZ status is a protection accorded to the state’s Aravallis as per the NCRPB’s Regional Plan 2021. The Aravallis occupy about 1 lakh hectares in Haryana. Of these, about 60,000 hectares have been accorded the NCZ status, while 12,000 were slotted under the ‘NCZ status yet to be decided’ in 2014. The state government proposed to conduct physical investigations of these lands (ground-truthing) to determine whether or not they meet the criteria for an NCZ tag, which is reserved for deemed forests.

It is these 12,000 hectares (which consist of gair mumkin pahad and bhood lands) for which the ground-truthing exercise is relevant. Protection under the NCZ only allows for 0.5% construction. While the NCRPB waits for the state to finish deciding the NCZ status, the DTCP has issued multiple Change of Land Use permissions and construction licences to realtors.

“Initially, the town planning department was denied from giving construction licences in these areas, but in April 2015 this decision was revoked on the promise that the ground-truthing exercise would be done,” environment analyst Chetan Agarwal said.

Environmentalists also expressed fear that the controversial PLPA Amendment bill, which is set to be adjudicated upon in the SC on Friday, will impact ground-truthing exercise.