NCR board plan to redefine Delhi's green cover may hamper conservation, worry experts

NEW DELHI: With the NCR Planning Board (NCRPB) contemplating two categories for the existing Natural Conservation Zones (NCZ) — forests and green cover — experts feel areas that currently enjoy protection as forests will reduce in size. Under the proposal, while forests will remain protected, certain non-forest activities will be permitted in green-cover areas.The NCZ areas in Delhi include the Aravalis, which form a part of the Southern Ridge, lakes, riverbeds and water-recharge areas.
Vimlendu Jha, former independent member of the Ridge Management Board, said that forest cover in NCR was less than 4% of total land area and so the move to redefine forest and green cover zones would need to be thought through. “Once we ease the governance and legal protocols of conservation, it's going to be a free run. Conservation will be gravely hit,” he said. “We need to do more to protect ourselves from climate change, rapid urbanisation and the growing threat to public health due to deteriorating water and air quality. We mustn’t auction off our natural resources.
Jha noted that a green cover was as critical as a forest. “But even a forest remains undefined in some NCR states.” said Jha, apprehensive that the two-zone proposal could lead to people taking advantage of that ambiguity.
Environmental activist Diwan Singh, who launched a satyagraha to remove encroachments from the Yamuna floodplain in 2007, pointed out that even after the Supreme Court asked for the Ridge to be treated as a forest area in 1994, its extent was yet to be demarcated, leaving the forest open to exploitation. The grey area opened up by defining forest area differently from green cover is likely to lead to similar exploitation, Singh felt.
“If the protection for green area veered towards the strictness marked for forests, we would have appreciated it,” the eco-activist said. “But this isn’t the case here. In fact, it is the opposite. Such departures from strict conservation goals will harm the ecological balance of the NCR region.”
Yamuna activist Manoj Mishra expected Haryana to face the bigger impact since the Aravalis are yet to be declared a ‘forest area’. “The impact on the national capital will likely be far less,” he said. “But at the same time, it is inadvisable to loosen existing safeguards at a time when climate change is hitting cities hard.”
Some experts said they awaited further clarity, with the draft proposal yet to be cleared by the chief ministers of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan before final approval.
Forest officials also felt the definition of a green cover needed to be clarified before the impact could be ascertained. “There will certainly be some impact because forest areas enjoy tougher protection. Once we learn what a green cover constitutes, we will have a better idea,” said one of the officials.
Another forest official argued that there already are definitions of forest and green cover in the India State of Forest Report, released by the Forest Survey of India every two years. “If the same definition is accepted, forest cover in Delhi may not suffer,” the official said.