Gurugram MC cuts trees in Aravallis without Forest Dept's approval

Gurugram, February 22

The local Municipal Corporation has illegally chopped around 100 trees in the Aravallis to make way for a boundary wall of a waste treatment plant near Bandhwari village, raising the hackles of environmentalists.

“Vilayati kikar” trees have been cut without the approval of the Forest Department.

The department has said its approval is mandatory under the Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), while the Municipal Corporation has claimed that the waste treatment plant land is its property for which compensatory afforestation has already been done.

MC officials said it was necessary to build the wall.

The matter came to light when city-based environmentalist Vaishali Rana Chandra alerted the department about it.

“Rules are same for all. The civic body should be setting an example. It should not carry out any non-forestry activity in the Aravallis. The MC does not have the right to fell trees or construct any structure. This is a blatant violation of the Punjab Land Preservation Act. We have approached the Forest Department,” she said.

The department has, meanwhile, conducted a survey of the site and confirmed that the trees were chopped. It has shot off a letter to the MC, seeking an explanation.

In a statement, the MC said: “The waste treatment plant has been built on the MC land. The civic body did compensatory afforestation when the land was handed over to us. There was no need to get an approval from the Forest Department to construct the boundary wall or fell trees.”

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the civic bodies in Faridabad and Gurugram to clear the legacy waste in the next three months. The Gurugram MC has doubled the waste treatment capacity and sources claim the wall was being built to aid the operations primarily to stop leakage of leachate.