Supreme Court saved Aravalis for 20 years, and PMO on two occasions

NEW DELHI: Over the past two decades, Supreme Court has protected the Aravalis from activities that can harm ecologically sensitive zones, including in 2002 when it banned mining and pumping of groundwater within 5km of the Delhi border, and subsequently banned illegal mining in Haryana and Rajasthan.

Even the PMO, on two occasions in April 2014 during the Manmohan Singh government and even last year, stepped in to stop the dilution of provision of 0.5% restriction on construction and other non-forest activities in Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ) in NCR which largely includes Aravalis and water bodies.




"From 2002, SC has consistently passed orders restricting non-ecological activities in Aravalis. The PMO has also stepped in from time time to time to stop dilution of environmental norms. Surprisingly, the report submitted by the environment and forest ministry in the current case before the court seems to facilitate mining rather than conservation," said M D Sinha, former principal chief conservator of forests in Haryana government.

The series of SC orders from 2002 to 2019 shows that the court did not allow mining activities and even put Haryana's PLPA Act, which would have resulted in large tracts of the Aravalis and Shiwaliks losing the legal forest tag, in abeyance.

Activists fighting for protection of Aravalis said there had been consistent efforts by government entities, particularly in Haryana, to allow non-forest and real estate activities in the guise of creating recreational facilities.

In 2014, then Haryana government's push to relax the construction limit in Aravali beyond 0.5% during mid-term review of the NCR Regional Plan 2021 was stopped after the PMO directed the NCR Planning Board to take the environment ministry's concerns on board.

Again in 2022, Haryana pushed for doing away with mention of Aravali and NCZ in the Draft Regional Plan 2041 with a less restrictive "Natural Zone", the provision that would remove this mandatory conservation requirement. When the matter came before the PMO and a Group of Ministers, they directed the housing and urban affairs ministry not to dilute the provision of NCZ and Aravali.
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