NEW DELHI: Govt is likely to restore the provision of the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ), including Aravali ridge and major water bodies in the NCR, in the draft Regional Plan (RP) 2041, which will ensure such areas are protected for environmental reasons. It will also include the definition of Aravali as any such omissions would mean dilution of environmental policies of R and lead to further litigations, sources said.
However, the plan, which will be finalised soon, would have a provision specifying that the current definition of Aravali range as notified by environment ministry on May 7, 1992, which prohibits non-forest activities, will be applicable for the 2041 Plan across the NCR “until specific directions with a different definition are issued by a competent authority/ Supreme Court”. The apex court has made a panel of senior central and state govt officials to come up with a common and uniform definition of the Aravali hills and ranges.
The May 1997 Aravali notification covers all reserved forests, protected forests or any other area shown as “forest in the land records” maintained by the state as on that date. It also includes all areas shown as ‘gair mumkin pahar’, ‘gair mumkin rada’, ‘gair mumkin behed’, ‘banjad beed’, or ‘rundh'”.
TOI on July 12 had reported how the PMO and a Group of Ministers had directed the housing and urban affairs ministry (MoHUA) before the last Lok Sabha election not to dilute the provision of NCZ and Aravali. The draft regional plan had replaced the terminology NCZ with Natural Zone (NZ). While state govts are mandated to conserve areas falling under NCZ and not more than 0.5% of the area can be used for limited non-forest activities, conservation is optional for govts to conserve land parcels under NZ.
Sources said at a recent meeting in the PMO, officials from MoHUA and NCR Planning Board presented that the ministry even did not accept a “draft informal definition” suggested by the forest and environment ministry in July 2022, which Haryana had also agreed. It was because the informal definition had no reference to any natural features such as mountains and hills, rivers and water bodies. It also did not include two important ecological features of Aravali ranges and rivers and water bodies. Such a move may have attracted more public objections and people taking the matter to courts.
It can be recalled that when the NCR Planning Board had published the Draft RP-2041 proposing to replace NCZ with NZ, it had received more than 4,000 letters and emails most of which sought the restoration of NCZ provision.
A govt assessment shows that if NCZ provision is diluted, approximately 179 sq km area presently marked as Aravali range, excluding 304 sq km of Gurgaon and Nuh, will become available for construction and stone mining. Around 22.4 sq km lies in Faridabad district. Similarly, around 217.6 sq mm area presently marked as wasteland in Rajasthan will become available for construction and industry.
