UP to NGT: Applicants seeking Yamuna flood aid are encroachers

Noida: UP govt has told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that farmhouse owners seeking compensation for damage caused during the July 2023 Yamuna floods had encroached upon the floodplain and had been served eviction notices more than a year before the deluge.Submitting details of the river's floodplain demarcation, the state said the applicants, who own farmhouses and fields along the Yamuna in Gautam Budh Nagar, had raised unauthorised constructions on the river's floodplain despite a clear prohibition by the Noida Authority.
Notices warning against construction in the notified area were issued on June 8, 2022, the state govt counsel told the principal bench of the tribunal, which was examining a compensation claim submitted by Suman Chauhan, Manoj Singh and Dinesh Kumar Tyagi claiming that over 50 land owners were affected by the flood. The three had moved the tribunal in 2023, seeking compensation for damage to their houses and agricultural land.The applicants argued that the flooding was not a natural disaster but the result of human actions, including silt accumulation that narrowed the river channel, faulty flood regulation and the failure to strengthen embankments between the river and nearby villages. They sought compensation under the principle of "no-fault liability", citing earlier tribunal orders in similar cases.The state govt, UP irrigation department, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited, Noida district magistrate and Noida Authority, all respondents in the case, had contested the claim, maintaining that the floods were a natural event that was worsened by widespread encroachment on the floodplain. Officials told the tribunal that those seeking compensation were themselves in violation of environmental and land-use norms.In an affidavit, the executive engineer of the irrigation and water resources department informed the tribunal that the Yamuna's floodplain had been formally demarcated and notified on Dec 21, 2024. The demarcation covered critical stretches of the river, including areas from Asgarpur to Etawah and from Shahpur to Prayagraj, based on a 100-year flood return period and one-metre contour data.According to the affidavit, the Central Water Commission provided geographical coordinates for the floodplain passing through Noida. These coordinates were verified on the ground, after which demarcation pillars were installed to physically mark the floodplain limits. Photographs of the pillars were also placed on record before the tribunal.Counsel representing the authorities said action had been initiated against the applicants for raising unauthorised farmhouses, prompting them to approach the high court. While the applicants claimed they were only cultivating farmland with temporary structures, the authorities disputed this, describing the constructions as illegal and permanent.An affidavit filed by Noida district magistrate on Sept 2 last year said the applicants had challenged a public notice issued on June 8, 2022, by the Noida Authority. The notice made it clear that, under the UP Industrial Area Development Act, 1975, no construction is permitted in Noida's notified area without prior approval of the Authority.The notice also stated that no other department had the power to grant construction permissions in the notified area. "Despite repeated notices, warning boards, demolition drives and information circulated through its official website, instances of illegal construction continue to rise. Accordingly, the notice strictly prohibits any construction in the notified submerged area, warns that unauthorised structures will be demolished at the cost of the violator (recoverable as land revenue), and states that legal action will also be initiated against encroachers," the counsel said, adding that it is against this notice that the applicants moved the high court.