GURUGRAM: The Haryana govt, holding consultations among its departments to come up with a definition of the Aravali hills — a directive issued by the Supreme Court earlier this year — has run into some hurdles in decision making.
The department of town and country planning (DTCP) in July raised its concern that a definition of Aravalis cannot be made without mapping out the hill range in its entirety in the state.
In a letter to the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), the department said that it has previously allotted land use licences and permissions on the definition of Aravalis before the 1992 notification, which granted green protection to some areas of the hills.
“On examining the matter, this department was of the opinion that without meticulous mapping of the Aravalli hills and ranges, as per the benchmark delineated by FSI (Forest Survey of India) and adopted by the State of Rajasthan, the impact could not be ascertained.
This department formulated various Development Plans in the region and accorded licenses and CLU (change in land use) permissions considering the definition of Aravalli as per notification dated 05.07.1992.
Therefore, no definition could be concurred upon without ascertaining its precise impact,” the July 30 letter by Jaideep c/o district town planner (NCR) for director, town and country planning, Haryana to HSPCB said..
Another impediment flagged by the forest department is the absence of high-resolution imagery of the Aravalis in the state.
The forest department had acknowledged this issue in a July 17 letter to APCCF, Haryana forest and suggested seeking assistance from the Survey of India or the Haryana Space Applications Centre (HARSAC) to get better quality satellite imagery of the hills.
“In the interim, the GIS cell of the forest department prepared coarse contours… of the Aravalli districts using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) Digital Elevation Model (DEM)…” the principal chief conservator of forest wrote.
TOI had earlier reported about another contention raised by officials on coming up with a definition for the Aravalis.
Departments are yet to agree on Rajasthan’s Aravali definition, which includes only hills with peaks at least 100 metres above ground level. It is only on these hills that mining is prohibited in Rajasthan.
But FSI, in its 2019 report to a central govt panel, recommended including all hillocks and slopes (with inclines of at least 30 degrees above ground level) to be part of the Aravalis along with a 100-metre buffer zone and valleys.
Coming up with a definition is particularly significant because the Supreme Court, which was hearing a case on illegal mining in the Aravalis this May, had directed Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and Gujarat govts that they couldn’t renew leases or issue new ones for stone or sand quarrying in the hills without its permission.
SC, when told by amicus curiae K Parmeshwar that the issue was complicated due to the lack of consensus over what constituted the Aravalis, formed a committee to come up with a uniform definition of the hills in two months.
With Haryana yet to come up with its own definition, consensus on a uniform definition of the range between the four states where the Aravalis lay (Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat), Union environment ministry and other agencies is far from reality.
SC’s direction, which was supposed to be completed in two months – i.e. by August – is also critical because Haryana govts, over the years, have tried to minimise any environmental protection for the hills by denying that there is no specific definition of the Aravalis.
In 2016, Haryana govt told the NCR Planning Board that there were no Aravalis recorded in the state, so it couldn’t mark any natural conservation zones (NCZ).
The Supreme Court is set to hear the case next on September 15.
TOI reached out to HSPCB regarding the matter. Officials from the board said they are looking into the situation. “On all such pending matters an agenda will be prepared, and a meeting would be fixed at the level of ACS in the near future,” said P Raghavendra Rao, chairman of HSPCB, told TOI.
“The Haryana government has consistently dragged its feet in agreeing to a definition of the Aravalis and implementing the same. Binding directions on the definition of Aravalis from the NCRPB board in 2016-17 seem to have been ignored. Now again it seems that the court ordered process to define and identify the Aravalis, is delayed again – repeating the pattern. At the heart is the underlying desire to allow real estate in the NCR Aravalis,” said Chetan Aggarwal, a forest analyst.
