GURUGRAM: The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has asked the Gurgaon deputy commissioner to carry out a comprehensive investigation and find out how environmental clearance was granted for Global City – a govt residential and commercial project slated to come up on 1,000 acres.
The action followed a complaint by an environmentalist, who alleged that the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) may have provided misleading information to secure a clearance from the Centre.
SS Oberoi, the complainant, raised serious concerns about potential infringement of the Forest Conservation Act and the Wildlife Conservation Act. Citing responses to an RTI query he had filed with the central and state govts, Oberoi questioned the project’s Terms of Reference, which says that the land on which Global City is being built is “vacant with some scanty vegetation”.
Oberoi contested this, saying the 1,000 acres were home to some 32,000 trees and a diverse array of fauna.
“It is to intimate that a complaint has been received from Sarvadaman Singh Oberoi against the ‘Global City’ project. I have been directed to forward a copy of the complaint to the district-level monitoring committee for further examination with a request to submit a report at the earliest,” read a letter by the assistant to the member secretary, SEIAA.
“I have been directed to inform you that the National Green Tribunal in M.A. No. 28 of 2023 in OA. No. 215 of 2023 directed the worthy chief secretary, Haryana, to prepare a mechanism for the compliance of the conditions stipulated in the environment clearance, so granted by this Authority,” it added.
Oberoi also challenged HSIIDC’s claim that Global City was an independent project, drawing a link with Signature Global, which is being built by a private developer. The environmentalist alleged that HSIIDC had leased out land to the developer for Signature Global and other projects, which could together “jeopardise the extensive tract of forest land”.
“When this and interlinked ‘forest land’ projects are executed, it would cause a great loss to trees and fauna on 1,590 acres of ‘forest land’. To say that ‘no agricultural land is involved’ is also not the truth. Forest resources, while they may not be utilised fully, would surely be destroyed along with wildlife and natural resources like wells and nullahs,” Oberoi said.
He also claimed that though HSIIDC was supposed to deposit Rs 7 crore for wildlife mitigation, it had paid only Rs 2 crore so far.
The findings of the investigation are crucial for the fate of Global City and other projects as the report will determine if any of them can proceed in keeping with their original plan or the developers must carry out substantial modifications to safeguard the local ecosystem.
“The wildlife department has confirmed that of Rs 7 crore that was supposed to have been deposited for conservation of wildlife and forests, only Rs 2.6 crore had been paid so far. Since Feb this year, when work on Global City started, thousands of trees have been felled,” alleged Vaishali Rana, another environmentalist.
