Aravallis not a forest area now, last green patch in grave danger

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Gurgaon, April 16

Mangar Bani was the last known virgin forest in this area but that was three days ago. The state environment authorities have now declassified this centuries old green patch as ‘non-forest’.

The news has shocked hundreds of residents who have started drafting a petition to give them their much revered status back or face protests.

“ This is no normal green area but a sacred forest where our Gudariya Baba resides. This place remained unchanged for centuries till it was replaced by mines and buildings but nobody touched this patch. The residents of Bandhwari and Baliawas villages have protected this patch for centuries in the memory of the Baba who attained salvation here and harming this forest will incur his wrath,” said Fateh Singh Harsana, a panchayat member.

Earlier in March, it was decided to record the entire Aravalli range as forest while carrying out ground surveys of natural conservation zones in the NCR. The forest department, however, reversed that order and asked officials not to designate lands in the range as forests other than those formally recorded as such.

The order implies that there is no way to curtail the earlier prohibited real estate and commercial activities on vast tracts of forests, including most parts of the sacred Mangar Bani grove.

The decision is a result of constant lobbying by builders and would make it a cake walk for real estate and other industries to clear the forests in the coming years.

Forest Minister Capt Abhimanyu had in a recent meet of ministers in Delhi proposed that the Aravalli’s be exempt from a key provision of the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) that puts conditions on transfer of forest land.

Capt Abhimanyu contended that since most forest land in the region was owned by individuals the task of compensatory afforestation should be left to the private owners of land instead of making it mandatory for land to be transferred

“In the elections these leaders accused us of selling the state for benefit of realtors? What has changed in a month that makes a forest a non- forest? Congress wanted this region to support forest and agro- based industry but they are giving a complete go ahead for realtors to destroy this area,” said former Congress Minister Captain Ajay Yadav.