Aravallis endangered

From being the oldest mountain range of the country embracing a rich ecosystem of hills, forests, fauna, natural aquifers and drainage, the Aravallis suffer the ignominy of being the most degraded forest range, as per a study conducted by the Wildlife of India in 2017. Particularly worrisome has been the rapid depletion of the Aravalli hills in Haryana’s districts of Gurugram, Faridabad, Mewat, Mahendragarh and Rewari and neighbouring parts of Rajasthan. As massive steel and concrete jungles replaced huge swathes of the verdant area, the ecological balance was upset. Within a few decades, the natural habitat existing and thriving for thousands of years was staring at extinction. A huge price had been paid for the developmental activities. It came in the disastrous form of the disappearance of many indigenous plant and wildlife species, deforestation and drying up of groundwater recharge zones as hillocks vanished from the terrain. 

Alarmed, environmentalists and courts intervened. The need to prevent its further desertification was urgently felt. Strict laws mandating the preservation of the green and hilly zone came up. There was no quarrel over putting a halt to quarrying and arbitrary construction in the Aravalli hills. The SC verdict of October 2018, saying that Kant Enclave in Faridabad had come up illegally and that it be demolished so that the original forestland could be revived, came as a huge blow to the land-grabbing builders. 

At the core of the judgment was the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1990. It debars construction in areas covered under it. More such illegal colonies facing the axe would have been a natural progression towards the aim of restoring the eco-sustainability of the area. Alas, it seems the influence of the unscrupulous real estate lobby has prevailed. The recent move of the Haryana Government to amend the PLPA to exclude it from the master plan areas is a pointer to builders having a free run over thousands of acres. It would have disastrous consequences. The state must review its plan and notify the Act before it lapses.