Faridabad: 13 illegal constructions demolished in Aravallis

Bijendra Ahlawat

Faridabad, January 19

The Forest Department on Thursday launched a demolition drive against illegal constructions in the protected forest land in the Aravallis here. As many as 13 units, including farmhouses and marriage gardens, were razed in a day, making it the first such drive in two and half years.

The department demolished seven such constructions near Mewla Maharajpur village and six others in the revenue area of Anangpur village, an official in the Forest Department said.

Though no official target of number of constructions to be razed has been announced, sources claim that around 80 constructions are expected to be demolished in the next 15 to 20 days. This is the fifth such drive in the past four years, it is revealed.

While similar drives had earlier been taken up in 2020-21, leading to the demolition of around 40 constructions, sources claim that a majority of these have either been rebuilt or several fresh constructions have come up here since then.

In a survey carried out in 2019-20, the Forest Department had identified around 7,500 units or constructions spread over an area of around 550 hectares of forest land.

Claiming that the illegal constructions in the Aravallis have not yet been curbed, Vishnu Goel, a social activist, alleged that poor action on part of the authorities concerned had led to a severe threat to the ecology and greenery in the region.

A majority of farmhouses and marriage gardens have come up in the villages of Lakadpur, Kot, Anangpur, Mewla Maharajpur, Ankhir and Badkhal despite their protection under Sections 4 and 5 of Punjab Land Preservation Act, it is reported.

‘Needless to observe that the direction to remove the unauthorised structures on the forest land applies to ‘all’ without any exception. These structures shall be razed after proper verification,’’ the Supreme Court’s order on August 23, 2019, read.

District Forest Officer Rajkumar said the drive would continue to ensure the removal of all illegal constructions in the forest land there.